Proverbs 5

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

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

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

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

⁵Her feet go down to death ; her steps follow the path to Sheol ;

⁶she does not ponder the path of life ; her ways wander , and she does not know it.

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

⁸Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house ,

⁹lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless ,

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

¹¹and at the end of your life you groan , when your flesh and body are consumed ,

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

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors .

¹⁴I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation .

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

¹⁶Should your springs be scattered abroad , streams of water in the streets ?

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

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

¹⁹a lovely deer , a graceful doe . Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight ; be intoxicated always in her love .

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated , my son , with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress ?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponders all his paths .

²²The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin .

²³He dies for lack of discipline , and because of his great folly he is led astray .