1My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, (Pr 2:1; Pr 4:20; Pr 22:17)2that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. (Pr 1:4; Mal 2:7)3For the lips of a forbidden[1] woman drip honey, and her speech[2] is smoother than oil, (Ps 55:21; Pr 2:16)4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. (De 29:18; Ps 55:21; Ps 57:4; Ps 149:6; Ec 7:26; Jer 9:15; La 3:15; La 3:19; Re 8:11)5Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to[3] Sheol; (Pr 7:27)6she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. (Pr 4:26; Pr 5:21)7And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. (Pr 4:1)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 a foreigner, (Ps 127:2)11and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, (Eze 24:23)12and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! (Ps 107:11; Pr 1:22; Pr 1:25; Pr 1:29; Pr 12:1)13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.14I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” (Ps 94:17)15Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. (Pr 5:18; Pr 9:17; So 4:12; So 4:15; Jer 2:13)16Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? (Ps 68:26; Jer 9:21; Zec 8:5)17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. (Pr 14:10)18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, (De 24:5; Pr 5:15; Mal 2:14)19a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated[4] always in her love. (So 2:9; So 2:17; So 8:14; Jer 31:14)20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?[5] (Pr 2:16)21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders[6] all his paths. (Job 14:16; Ps 11:4; Ps 119:168; Pr 5:6; Ho 7:2; Heb 4:13)22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. (Ps 7:15; Pr 6:2)23He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. (Job 4:21; Job 12:24)
Proverbs 5
King James Version
1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them .7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, 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 thy labours be in the house of a stranger;11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!14I was almost 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.16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers'with thee.18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.19Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.20And why wilt 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 the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.