Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
My son, to my wisdom, attend, and, to mine understanding, incline thou thine ear:
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
That thou mayest preserve discretion, —and, as for knowledge, that thy lips may guard it.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
For, with sweet droppings, drip the lips of her that is a stranger, and, smoother than oil, is her mouth;
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
But, the latter end of her, is bitter as wormwood, sharp, as a two-edged sword!
Her feet, are going down to death, —on hades, will her steps take firm hold. (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
Lest, the path of life, she should ponder, her tracks have wandered she knoweth not [whither].
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
Now, therefore, ye sons, hearken unto me, and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
Keep far from her thy way, and do not go near the opening of her house:
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
Lest thou give, to other men, thy vigour, and thy years, to him that is cruel:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
Lest strange men, be well fed, by thy strength, and, thy toils, be in the house of the alien.
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
So shalt thou grieve in thy latter end, in the failing of thy flesh and of thy healthy condition;
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
And thou shalt say—How I hated correction! and, reproof, my heart disdained;
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
Neither hearkened I to the voice of my teachers, nor, to my instructors, inclined I mine ear:
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
Soon was I in all evil, in the midst of convocation and assembly.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Drink thou water out of thine own cistern, and flowing streams out of the midst of thine own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Let not thy fountains, flow over, abroad, in the streets, dividings of waters:
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
Let them be for thyself, alone, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Let thy well-spring be blessed, —and get thy joy from the wife of thy youth: —
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
A loving hind! a graceful doe! let, her bosom, content thee at all times, and, in her love, mayst thou stray evermore.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
Wherefore, then, shouldst thou stray, my son, with a strange woman? or embrace the bosom of a woman unknown?
21 For the ways of man are before the LORD’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
For, before the eyes of Yahweh, are the ways of a man, —and, all his tracks, doth he consider:
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
His own iniquities, shall entrap him with the lawless, and, by the cords of his own sin, shall he be seized.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
He, shall die, for lack of discipline, and, by the abounding of his perversity, shall he be lost.
