Proverbs 5
1 [My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
My son, attend to my wisdom, [and] bow thy ear to my understanding:
2 that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
That thou mayest regard discretion, and [that] thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
For the lips of a strange woman drop [as] a honey-comb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil:
4 but afterwards you will find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as 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)
Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. (Sheol h7585)
6 For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
Lest thou shouldst ponder the path of life, her ways are movable, [that] thou canst not know [them].
7 Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
Lest thou give thy honor to others, and thy years to the cruel:
10 lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labours come into the houses of strangers;
Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labors [be] in the house of a stranger;
11 And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
Drink waters out of thy own cistern, and running waters out of thy own well.
16 Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, [and] rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
Let them be only thy own, and not for strangers with thee.
18 Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
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.
[Let her be as] the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be held with the cords of his sins.
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.
He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
