Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply thine ear to my words;
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and 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 honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, 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, and 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 never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
Remove thy way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless:
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers;
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
And thou repent at last, when the flesh of thy body is consumed,
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Drink waters out of thine own vessels, and out of thine own springing wells.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
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 only, not for other men with you.
Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
Let thy fountain of water be [truly] thine own; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by 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 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
