Proverbs 5:1–14

Warning against Impurity and Infidelity

⁵My child, be attentive to my wisdom;

incline your ear to my understanding,^*

²so that you may hold on to prudence,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose woman^h drip honey,

and her speech is smoother than oil,^*

⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.^*

⁵Her feet go down to death;

her steps follow the path to Sheol.

⁶She does not keep straight to the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, my child,ⁱ listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.^*

⁸Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,^*

⁹lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰and strangers take their fill of your wealth,

and your labors go to the house of an alien,

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof!^*

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin

in the public assembly.”