Proverbs 5
1 My son, listen carefully to some [more] wise things that I will tell you. Listen well to what I am going to teach you.
My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully as I explain what makes sense,
2 If you do that, you will be able to choose wisely [what to do], and you will know [the right things] to say [MTY].
so you can make good decisions and protect knowledge with your lips.
3 What an immoral woman says [to you may be] as sweet as honey, and sound smoother than olive oil [feels on your skin],
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 the result [of being with her] will be bitter like gall and [injure you as badly], like being cut with a sharp 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 If you go where she goes [MTY], you will go down to where the dead people are. Her steps will lead you straight to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
She leads you down to death; she takes you down to the grave. (Sheol h7585)
6 She is not concerned about the roads that lead to a [long] life. She walks [down] a crooked path, and she does not realize [that she is on the wrong road].
She doesn't follow the path that leads to life—she wanders away and doesn't even know she's lost.
7 So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
Now, my son, listen to me; don't reject what I have taught you.
8 Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
Stay far away from her! Don't go near the door of her house!
9 If you enter the home of one of them, you will lose your (self-respect/good reputation) and [that woman’s husband] will not act mercifully toward you; he will [kill you and] take everything that you have acquired during your life!
Otherwise you'll surrender your honor to others, and your character to cruel people.
10 Foreigners will take your money, and [all] the good things that you have worked for will (end up in their hands/become their possessions).
Strangers will spend your wealth; everything you've worked for will go to someone else.
11 And when you are about to die, you will groan [with severe pain] because diseases [that you have gotten from being immoral] will be destroying your body.
When you come to the end of your life you'll moan in pain as disease destroys your body.
12 Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
You'll say, “How I used to hate discipline, and my mind rebelled against being corrected!
13 I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
I didn't listen to what my teacher said. I didn't pay attention to my instructors.
14 [Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
Now I'm on the verge of being completely disgraced before everyone in the community.”
15 Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16 Like you would not waste good water by pouring it into the street, [you should not have sex with other women]. [MET, EUP]
Why should your springs be spilled outside, your streams of water poured out in the streets?
17 Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
Keep them for yourselves alone. They're not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let your wife be a source of great pleasure to you. (Be happy/[Enjoy sex]) with the woman whom you married when you were both young.
May your spring of water be blessed, and may you enjoy the wife you married when you were young.
19 She is as pretty and graceful [as] a young female deer. Allow her breasts to always satisfy you. Allow her lovemaking to excite you.
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 My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
Why, my son, become intoxicated with an immoral woman? Why embrace the breasts of a woman who acts like a prostitute?
21 [I say that] because Yahweh sees clearly everything that we do; he knows [where we are going on] the roads that we walk on.
For the Lord sees everything people do, the Lord investigates everywhere they go.
22 Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
The wicked are trapped by their evil actions; the cords of their sins tie them up.
23 Evil men [will] die because they are unable to say “No” to their desires; they [will] (go astray/be lost) because of the foolish things that they do.
They will die because they lack self-control, lost because of their great stupidity.
