Proverbs, 5
1. My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen carefully to what I know;
1. My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding;
2. so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,
2. that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.
3. for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,
3. For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
4. but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
4. but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5. Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;
5. Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;
6. far from following the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.
6. she does not take heed to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7. And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:
7. And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8. set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,
8. Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house;
9. or she will hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,
9. lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless;
10. and strangers will batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,
10. lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of an alien;
11. and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you will groan
11. and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12. and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned all correction;
12. and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13. I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.
13. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
14. Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'
14. I was at the point of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."
15. Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.
15. Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
16. Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:
16. Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17. let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
17. Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
18. May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,
18. Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19. fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that ever holds you captive.
19. a lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with delight, be infatuated always with her love.
20. Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs to another?
20. Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
21. For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey all human paths.
21. For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he watches all his paths.
22. The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.
22. The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is caught in the toils of his sin.
23. For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.
23. He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is lost.
