Proverbs 5

1My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:

1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

2So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.

2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

3For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

4But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;

4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

5Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;

5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

6She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.

6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

7Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.

7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

8Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;

8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

9For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:

9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

10And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;

10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

11And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;

11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

12And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;

12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

13I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!

13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

14I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.

14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

15Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.

15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

16Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.

16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

17Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.

17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee.

18Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.

18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

19As 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.

19Let 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.

20Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

21For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.

21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.

22The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.

22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

23He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.

23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.