Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply thine ear to my words;
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve 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 an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases thy palate:
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as 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 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart 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. Don’t come 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 one;
lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers;
11 You will groan at your latter end, 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 I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
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 vessels, and out of thine own springing wells.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Let not waters out of thy fountain be spilt by thee, but let thy waters go into thy streets.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Let thy fountain of water be [truly] thine own; 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 [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 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
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 Yahweh’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will 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.
