Proverbs 5–7

Chapter 5

¹My son, be attentive to my wisdom,

incline your ear to my understanding;

²that you may keep discretion,

and your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a loose woman 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 take heed to the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And now, O sons, 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;

¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

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, “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.

¹⁴I was at the point of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad,

streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

¹⁹a lovely hind, a graceful doe.

Let her affection fill you at all times with delight,

be infatuated always with her love.

²⁰Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman

and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,

and he watches all his paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,

and he is caught in the toils of his sin.

²³He dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is lost.

Chapter 6

¹My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor,

have given your pledge for a stranger;

²if you are snared in the utterance of your lips,

caught in the words of your mouth;

³then do this, my son, and save yourself,

for you have come into your neighbor’s power:

go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.

⁴Give your eyes no sleep

and your eyelids no slumber;

⁵save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter,

like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, O sluggard;

consider her ways, and be wise.

⁷Without having any chief,

officer or ruler,

⁸she prepares her food in summer,

and gathers her sustenance in harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O sluggard?

When will you arise from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber,

a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond,

and want like an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man,

goes about with crooked speech,

¹³winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet,

points with his finger,

¹⁴with perverted heart devises evil,

continually sowing discord;

¹⁵therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;

in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

¹⁶There are six things which the Lord hates,

seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked plans,

feet that make haste to run to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who breathes out lies,

and a man who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment,

and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them upon your heart always;

tie them about your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,

from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,

but an adulteress stalks a man’s very life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire in his bosom

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk upon hot coals

and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Do not men despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?

³¹And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;

he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery has no sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

³³Wounds and dishonor will he get,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious,

and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation,

nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.

Chapter 7

¹My son, keep my words

and treasure up my commandments with you;

²keep my commandments and live,

keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

³bind them on your fingers,

write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend;

⁵to preserve you from the loose woman,

from the adventuress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house

I have looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I have seen among the simple,

I have perceived among the youths,

a young man without sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰And lo, a woman meets him,

dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward,

her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the market,

and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him,

and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices,

and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings,

colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey;

²⁰he took a bag of money with him;

at full moon he will come home.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;

with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²All at once he follows her,

as an ox goes to the slaughter,

or as a stag is caught fast

²³till an arrow pierces its entrails;

as a bird rushes into a snare;

he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, O sons, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Let not your heart turn aside to her ways,

do not stray into her paths;

²⁶for many a victim has she laid low;

yea, all her slain are a mighty host.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.