Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
My son, attend unto my wisdom, [and] bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
That thou mayest regard discretion, and [that] thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. 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, and as sharp as a two-edged 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 way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, [that] thou canst not know [them].
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger;
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, [and] rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with 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.
[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 with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
