Proverbs 5

5:1

My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,

5:2

that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

5:3

Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

5:4

in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

5:5

Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

5:6

She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

5:7

So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

5:8

Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

5:9

lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

5:10

lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

5:11

At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

5:12

and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

5:13

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

5:14

I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

5:15

Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

5:16

Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

5:17

Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

5:18

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

5:19

A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

5:20

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

5:21

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

5:22

The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

5:23

He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.