Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding,
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;
2 that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
but afterwards you will 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 gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labors come into the houses of strangers;
11 You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,
12 and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof.
and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin, among the gathered assembly.”
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
Let not waters out of your fountain be spilt by you, but let your waters go into your streets.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.
18 Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
Let your fountain of water be [truly] your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
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.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.
21 For the ways of man are before the LORD’s eyes. He examines all his paths.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
