Proverbs 5

1 [My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;

My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,

2 that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;

so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.

3 for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:

For the lips of an immoral woman may taste as sweet as honey, the kisses of her mouth may be as smooth as oil,

4 but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.

but in the end what you get from her is the bitterness of wormwood and the sharp pain of being cut with a two-edged sword.

5 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)

She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)

6 For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.

She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.

7 Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.

Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.

8 Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:

Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!

9 lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:

Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.

10 lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labours come into the houses of strangers;

Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.

11 And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,

When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.

12 and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!

You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!

13 I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.

I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.

14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”

15 Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

16 Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.

Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?

17 Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.

Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.

18 Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.

May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.

19 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.

May she be to you a loving deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts always be intoxicating to you; may you be drunk on her love forever.

20 Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.

Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?

21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.

For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.

22 Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.

The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.

23 Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.

They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.