Proverbs 5
1 My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
My son, listen carefully to some [more] wise things that I will tell you. Listen well to what I am going to teach you.
2 So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
If you do that, you will be able to choose wisely [what to do], and you will know [the right things] to say [MTY].
3 For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
What an immoral woman says [to you may be] as sweet as honey, and sound smoother than olive oil [feels on your skin],
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
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.
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)
6 She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
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].
7 Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
So now, my sons, listen to me. (Never turn aside from/always remember) [LIT] what I am about to tell you.
8 Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
Run away from immoral women! Do not go near the doors of their houses!
9 For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
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!
10 And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
Foreigners will take your money, and [all] the good things that you have worked for will (end up in their hands/become their possessions).
11 And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
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.
12 And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
Then you will say, “I hated it [when people tried to] correct me. I despised [people when they] reproved/rebuked me.
13 I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
I did not heed what my teachers said! I paid no attention to those who [tried to] teach me [something about my behavior].
14 I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
[Now] I am almost ruined, and I will be disgraced in public gatherings.”
15 Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
Like a man is refreshed by drinking water from his own well [MET], enjoy [having sex] [EUP] only with your own wife.
16 Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
Like you would not waste good water by pouring it into the street, [you should not have sex with other women]. [MET, EUP]
17 Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
Enjoy [having sex] only with your wife; do not [have sex with] other women.
18 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
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.
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.
She is as pretty and graceful [as] a young female deer. Allow her breasts to always satisfy you. Allow her lovemaking to excite you.
20 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
My son, do not be [RHQ] captivated/charmed by an immoral woman! Do not fondle the breasts of another man’s wife!
21 For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
[I say that] because Yahweh sees clearly everything that we do; he knows [where we are going on] the roads that we walk on.
22 The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
Evil men’s sinful desires hold them fast; their sins are [like] ropes that bind them.
23 He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
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.
