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, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears 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].
so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect 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 an adulteress drip with honey 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 in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, cutting like a sharp 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 go all the way to Sheol. (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].
She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
8 Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
Keep your path far away from her and do not come near 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!
In that way you will not give away your honor to others or years of your life to a cruel person;
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).
strangers will not feast on your wealth; what you have worked for will not go into the house of strangers.
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.
At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body waste away.
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
13 I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
I was almost completely ruined in the midst of the assembly, among the gathering of the people.”
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 from your own cistern and drink running water from your 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]
Should your springs overflow everywhere and your streams of water flow in the public squares?
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
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.
May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your 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.
for she is a loving deer and a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be continually intoxicated by 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!
For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
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.
Yahweh sees everything a person does and watches all the paths he takes.
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
A wicked person will be seized by his own iniquities; the cords of his sin will hold him tight.
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 will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
