Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears to my understanding,
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
2 so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect knowledge.
that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip with honey and her mouth is smoother than oil,
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, cutting like a sharp sword.
but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established. (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Keep your path far away from her and do not come near the door of her house.
Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors 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 you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
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 your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body waste away.
And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
12 You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
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 your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
16 Should your springs overflow everywhere and your streams of water flow in the public squares?
Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
17 Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
18 May your fountain be blessed and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth,
Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your 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 [your] loving hart and your graceful colt company with you, and let her be considered your own, and be with you at all times; for ravished with her love you shall be greatly increased.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
21 Yahweh sees everything a person does and watches all the paths he takes.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 A wicked person will be seized by his own iniquities; the cords of his sin will hold him tight.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
