Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ears to my understanding,
My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
2 so you may learn about discretion and your lips may protect knowledge.
To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.
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 honey, And smoother than oil [is] her mouth,
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, cutting like a sharp sword.
And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths.
Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of. (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the path of life. Her footsteps wander; she does not know where she is going.
The path of life — lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths — thou knowest not.
7 Now, my sons, listen to me; do not turn away from listening to the words of my mouth.
And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
8 Keep your path far away from her and do not come near the door of her house.
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening 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 to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,
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 power, And thy labours 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 hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
12 You will say, “How I hated instruction and my heart despised correction!
And hast said, 'How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
13 I would not obey my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
14 I was almost completely ruined in the midst of the assembly, among the gathering of the people.”
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and drink running water from your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones 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 scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
17 Let them be for yourself alone and not for strangers with you.
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to 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 because of 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 hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated by an adulteress; why should you embrace the breasts of an immoral woman?
And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21 Yahweh sees everything a person does and watches all the paths he takes.
For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
22 A wicked person will be seized by his own iniquities; the cords of his sin will hold him tight.
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
23 He will die because he lacks instruction; he is led astray by his great foolishness.
He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!
