Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears to my understanding,
My son, attend to my wisdom. Incline thine ear to my understanding,
2 so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect knowledge.
that thou may preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip with honey and her mouth is smoother than oil,
For the lips of an interloping woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, cutting like a sharp sword.
But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death. Her steps take hold on Sheol, (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
so that she does not find the level path of life. Her ways are unstable, and she does not know.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
Now therefore, ye sons, hearken to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far away from her and do not come near the door of her house.
Remove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,
9 In that way you will not give away your honor to others or years of your life to a cruel person;
lest thou give thine honor to others, and thy years to the cruel,
10 strangers will not feast on your wealth; what you have worked for will not go into the house of strangers.
lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labors be in the house of an alien,
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body waste away.
and thou mourn at thy latter end when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
and say, How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
13 I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I was almost completely ruined in the midst of the assembly, among the gathering of the people.”
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the assembly and congregation.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and drink running water from your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Should your springs overflow everywhere and your streams of water flow in the public squares?
Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth,
Let thy fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of thy youth:
19 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.
a loving hind and a pleasant doe. Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
For why should thou, my son, be ravished with an interloping woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 Yahweh sees everything a person does and watches all the paths he takes.
For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he makes level all his paths.
22 A wicked person will be seized by his own iniquities; the cords of his sin will hold him tight.
His own iniquities shall take a wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.
23 He will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
He shall die for lack of instruction. And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
