【Proverbs】Chapter 5 << Last Chapter Next Chapter >>

5:1 My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,

5:2 That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.

5:3 The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

5:4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.

5:5 Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;

5:6 Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.

5:7 So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.

5:8 Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,

5:9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;

5:10 Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien’s house;

5:11 And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;

5:12 And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!

5:13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!

5:14 I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"

5:15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

5:16 How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

5:17 Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;

5:18 And have joy of the wife of your youth,

5:19 your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually,

5:20 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another’s wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?

5:21 For each man’s ways are plain to the LORD’s sight; all their paths he surveys;

5:22 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;

5:23 He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.

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