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, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
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 preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
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, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
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, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, 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, are going down to death, —on hades, will her steps take firm hold. (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, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening 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, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is 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 strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
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.
So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation 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 thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst 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 not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for 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 well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from 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.
A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
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, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
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, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
