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.
Proverbs 5
New International Reader’s Version
A warning against committing adultery
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Listen carefully to my wise sayings.2Then you will continue to have good sense. Your lips will keep on speaking words of knowledge.3A woman who commits adultery has lips that drip honey. What she says is smoother than olive oil.4But in the end she is like bitter poison. She cuts like a sword that has two edges.5Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to the grave.6She doesn’t give any thought to her way of life. Her paths have no direction, but she doesn’t realise it.7My sons, listen to me. Don’t turn away from what I say.8Stay on a path far away from that evil woman. Don’t even go near the door of her house.9If you do, you shall lose your honour to other people. You shall give your self-respect to someone who is mean.10Strangers will use up all your wealth. Your hard work will make someone else rich.11At the end of your life you will groan. Your skin and your body will be worn out.12You will say, ‘How I hated to take advice! How my heart refused to be corrected!13I would not obey my teachers. I wouldn’t listen to those who taught me.14I was soon in deep trouble. It happened right in front of the whole assembly of God’s people.’15Drink water from your own well. Drink running water from your own spring.16Should your springs pour out into the streets? Should your streams of water pour out in public places?17No! Let them belong to you alone. Never share them with strangers.18May your fountain be blessed. May the wife you married when you were young make you happy.19She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her breasts always satisfy you. May you always be captured by her love.20My son, why be captured by another man’s wife? Why hug a woman who has gone astray?21The LORD watches your ways. He studies all your paths.22Sinners are trapped by their own evil acts. They are held tight by the ropes of their sins.23They will die because they refused to be corrected. Their sins will capture them because they were very foolish.