Proverbs 5

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,

²so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.

³For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.

⁴But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell.

⁶They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.

⁷Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.

⁸Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.

⁹Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.

¹⁰Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,

¹¹and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:

¹²“Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?

¹³And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?

¹⁴I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.

¹⁶Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.

¹⁷Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.

¹⁸Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:

¹⁹a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.

²⁰Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?

²¹The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.

²²His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.

²³He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.

¹My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence,

²That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.

³For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.

⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.

⁶They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.

⁷Now, therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.

⁹Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.

¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,

¹¹And thou mourn at the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say;

¹²Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,

¹³And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?

¹⁴I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.

¹⁵Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:

¹⁶Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.

¹⁷Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

¹⁸Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:

¹⁹Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times: be thou delighted continually with her love.

²⁰Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?

²¹The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.

²²His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.

²³He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.