Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding:
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply thine ear to my words;
2 That you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge.
that thou mayest keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives thee a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases thy palate:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
but afterwards thou wilt 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 Lest you should ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that you can not know them.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Hear me now therefore, O you children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Remove your way far from her, and come not near the door of her house:
Remove thy way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel:
lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless:
10 Lest strangers be filled with your wealth; and your labors be in the house of a stranger;
lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers;
11 And you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
And thou repent at last, when the flesh of thy body is consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me!
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 I was almost in all evil in the middle of the congregation and assembly.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own vessels, and out of thine own springing wells.
16 Let your fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
Let not waters out of thy fountain be spilt by thee, but let thy waters go into thy streets.
17 Let them be only your own, and not strangers’ with you.
Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.
18 Let your fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let thy fountain of water be [truly] thine own; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and be you ravished always with her love.
Let [thy] loving hart and thy graceful colt company with thee, and let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times; for ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased.
20 And why will you, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his goings.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
