Proverbs 5

¹ My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:

² That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.

³ For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:

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

⁵ Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol;

⁶ So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not.

⁷ Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;

⁹ Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;

¹⁰ Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien,

¹¹ And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

¹² And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;

¹³ Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

¹⁴ I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.

¹⁵ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.

¹⁶ Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷ Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.

¹⁸ Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.

¹⁹ As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love.

²⁰ For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level all his paths.

²² His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

²³ He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.