Proverbs 5
1 My son, listen carefully to some [more] wise things that I will tell you. Listen well to what I am going to teach you.
My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 If you do that, you will be able to choose wisely [what to do], and you will know [the right things] to say [MTY].
That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 What an immoral woman says [to you may be] as sweet as honey, and sound smoother than olive oil [feels on your skin],
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
4 but the result [of being with her] will be bitter like gall and [injure you as badly], like being cut with a sharp two-edged sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 If you go where she goes [MTY], you will go down to where the dead people are. Her steps will lead you straight to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 She is not concerned about the roads that lead to a [long] life. She walks [down] a crooked path, and she does not realize [that she is on the wrong road].
They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 If you enter the home of one of them, you will lose your (self-respect/good reputation) and [that woman’s husband] will not act mercifully toward you; he will [kill you and] take everything that you have acquired during your life!
Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 Foreigners will take your money, and [all] the good things that you have worked for will (end up in their hands/become their possessions).
Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man’s house,
11 And when you are about to die, you will groan [with severe pain] because diseases [that you have gotten from being immoral] will be destroying your body.
And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 Like you would not waste good water by pouring it into the street, [you should not have sex with other women]. [MET, EUP]
Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 Let your wife be a source of great pleasure to you. (Be happy/[Enjoy sex]) with the woman whom you married when you were both young.
Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 She is as pretty and graceful [as] a young female deer. Allow her breasts to always satisfy you. Allow her lovemaking to excite you.
Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
20 My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
21 [I say that] because Yahweh sees clearly everything that we do; he knows [where we are going on] the roads that we walk on.
The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 Evil men [will] die because they are unable to say “No” to their desires; they [will] (go astray/be lost) because of the foolish things that they do.
He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
