Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat 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, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she does not know it.
They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Do not depart from the words of my mouth.
Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her. Do not come near the door of her house,
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
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 be in another man’s house,
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Let thy vein 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 thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
21 For the ways of man are before the LORD’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
