Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears to my understanding,
My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
2 so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect knowledge.
So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip with honey and her mouth is smoother than oil,
For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, cutting like a sharp sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
8 Keep your path far away from her and do not come near the door of her house.
Go far away from her, 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;
For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
10 strangers will not feast on your wealth; what you have worked for will not go into the house of strangers.
And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body waste away.
And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
12 You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
13 I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
14 I was almost completely ruined in the midst of the assembly, among the gathering of the people.”
I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and drink running water from your own well.
Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
16 Should your springs overflow everywhere and your streams of water flow in the public squares?
Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
17 Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth,
Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
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.
As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
21 Yahweh sees everything a person does and watches all the paths he takes.
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
22 A wicked person will be seized by his own iniquities; the cords of his sin will hold him tight.
The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
23 He will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
