Proverbs 5

Chapter 5

¹My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding; ²that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge. ³For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; ⁴but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol. ⁶Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not whither. ⁷And now, children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: ⁹lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel; ¹⁰lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil come into the house of a stranger; ¹¹and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed; ¹²and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! ¹³and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me; ¹⁴I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. ¹⁶Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways. ¹⁷Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. ¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth. ¹⁹As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love. ²⁰And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths. ²²His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. ²³He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.