Proverbs 5
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom; to my understanding incline thou thy ear:
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
2 That thou mayest observe discretion, and that thy lips may keep 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 as of fine honey drop the lips of an adulterous woman, and smoother than oil is her palate;
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, it is sharp as a two-edged 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 So that she cannot balance the path of life; her tracks are unsteady, and she knoweth it not.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 And now, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the sayings of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Remove far from her thy way, and come not nigh to the door of her house;
Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 That thou mayest not give up unto others thy vigor, and thy years unto the cruel;
lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
10 That strangers may not satisfy themselves with thy strength, and with thy exertions, in the house of an alien:
lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
11 While thou moanest at thy end, when thy flesh and thy body are coming to their end,
And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
12 And thou sayest, How have I hated correction, and how hath my heart rejected reproof;
and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 While I hearkened not to the voice of my instructors, and to my teachers I inclined not my ear;
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 But little more was wanting, and I had been in all [kinds of] unhappiness in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
16 So will thy springs overflow abroad; and in the open streets will be thy rivulets of water;
Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
17 They will be thy own only, and not those of strangers with thee.
Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
18 Thy fountain will be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth, —
Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
19 The lovely gazelle and the graceful chamois: let her bosom satisfy thee abundantly at all times; with her love be thou ravished continually.
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 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of an alien woman?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
21 For before the eyes of the Lord are the ways of man, and all his tracks doth he weigh in the balance.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 His own iniquities will truly catch the wicked, and with the cords of his sin will he be held firmly.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He will indeed die for want of correction; and through the abundance of his folly will he sink into error.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
