Proverbs 5

¹ My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,

² That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.

³ The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

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

⁵ Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;

⁶ Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.

⁷ So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,

⁹ Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;

¹⁰ Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;

¹¹ And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;

¹² And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!

¹³ Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!

¹⁴ I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.

¹⁶ How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷ Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;

¹⁸ And have joy of the wife of your youth,

¹⁹ your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually, (6:22) When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.

²⁰ Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?

²¹ For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;

²² By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;

²³ He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.