| 1 | My son, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you], |
| 2 | That you may exercise proper discrimination
and
discretion and your lips may guard
and
keep knowledge
and
the wise answer [to temptation]. |
| 3 | For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; |
| 4 | But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged
and
devouring sword. |
| 5 | Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead). |
| 6 | She loses sight of
and
walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them. |
| 7 | Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. |
| 8 | Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation], |
| 9 | Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy, |
| 10 | Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength
and
wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]— |
| 11 | And you groan
and
mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, |
| 12 | And you say, How I hated instruction
and
discipline, and my heart despised reproof! |
| 13 | I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted
and
consented to those who instructed me. |
| 14 | [The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation
and
the community. |
| 15 |
[a]Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well. |
| 16 | Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets? |
| 17 | [Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you. |
| 18 | Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth. |
| 19 | Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]—let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love. |
| 20 | Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider,
and
go astray? |
| 21 | For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man’s goings. |
| 22 | His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin. |
| 23 | He will die for lack of discipline
and
instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray
and
be lost. |
Cross references:
-
Proverbs 5:3 : Ezek. 20:30; Col. 2:8-10; II Pet. 2:14-17.
-
Proverbs 5:8 : Prov. 4:15; Rom. 16:17; I Thess. 5:19-22.
-
Proverbs 5:21 : II Chron. 16:9; Job 31:4; 34:21; Prov. 15:3; Jer. 16:17; Hos. 7:2; Heb. 4:13.
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