Proverbs - Chapter 5
- My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:
- That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
- For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:
- But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
- Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol;
- So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, `and' she knoweth `it' not.
- Now therefore, `my' sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.
- Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;
- Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;
- Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors `be' in the house of an alien,
- And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
- And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;
- Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
- I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
- Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.
- Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?
- Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.
- Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
- `As' a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love.
- For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
- For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level all his paths.
- His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
- He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
American Standard-ASV1901