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 unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
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 mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
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 strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth 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, sharp as a twoedged 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 to death; her steps take hold on 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].
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, 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 door 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!
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto 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 wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
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 at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised 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 obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine 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 dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ 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 fountain 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 as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always 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!
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
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.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yhwh, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his 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 without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
