Proverbs 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding.
2 Then you will preserve discretion, and your lips will guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulterous woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil.
4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She does not consider the path of life; her tracks wander, and you do not know where they lead.
7 Now then, my children, listen to me; do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her; do not go near the door of her house.
9 Otherwise, you will give your vigor to others, and your years to someone cruel.
10 Otherwise, strangers will feast on your strength, and your labor will end up in a foreigner’s house.
11 At the end, you will groan as your flesh and body waste away.
12 You will say, “How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction!
13 I would not listen to my teachers or incline my ear to those who instructed me.
14 I was almost ruined completely, in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow outside, your streams of water into the public squares?
17 Let them be yours alone, not shared with strangers.
18 May your spring be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe, a graceful gazelle—may her caresses satisfy you at all times; may you always be captivated by her love.
20 Why, my son, should you be captivated by an adulterous woman and embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
21 For a person’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD; he examines all his paths.
22 The wicked are caught by their own sins; the cords of their sin hold them fast.
23 He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his great folly.
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