Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears to my understanding,
My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect knowledge.
That thou mayest regard 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 a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, 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, sharp as a twoedged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not 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 come not nigh 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 honour unto others, and thy years unto 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 wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body waste away.
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that 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 congregation and assembly.
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?
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
Let them be only thine own, and not 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 with 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.
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 For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange 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 Yhwh, and he pondereth all his goings.
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 the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
