Proverbs 5

1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,

2so that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

3For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her palate is smoother than oil.

4but in the end she is bitter like wormwood, sharp like a double-edged sword.

5Her feet go down to death; her steps hold fast to Sheol.

6Lest you ponder the path of life, her paths wander; you do not know them.

7And now, sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

8Keep your path far away from her, and do not go near the entrance of her house.

9lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a cruel person.

10lest strangers have their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner.

11and you groan at your end, when your flesh and your body are consumed.

12and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!”

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

14I was nearly in utter ruin in the midst of the assembly and congregation.

15Drink water from your own cistern, and flowing water from your own well.

16Should your springs spread outside, streams of water in the streets?

17Let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.

18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

19a loving doe, a graceful mountain goat—may her breasts satisfy you at all times; be intoxicated always with her love.

20Why, my son, should you go astray with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

21For a man's ways are before the eyes of Yahweh, and he examines all his paths.

22His iniquities will capture the wicked man, and he will be held fast in the cords of his sin.

23He dies for lack of discipline, and in the abundance of his folly he goes astray.