Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
[My] son, attend to my wisdom, and apply thine ear to my words;
2 so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.
that thou mayest keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives thee a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;
3 For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases thy palate:
4 But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
but afterwards thou wilt 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 They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
7 Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
Now then, [my] son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
8 Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
Remove thy way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
9 Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless:
10 Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers;
11 and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
And thou repent at last, when the flesh of thy body is consumed,
12 “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
13 And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
14 I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”
I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
Drink waters out of thine own vessels, and out of thine own springing wells.
16 Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
Let not waters out of thy fountain be spilt by thee, but let thy waters go into thy streets.
17 Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.
18 Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
Let thy fountain of water be [truly] thine own; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.
Let [thy] loving hart and thy graceful colt company with thee, and let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times; for ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased.
20 Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.
21 The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.
For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
22 His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
23 He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.
Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
