The Proverbs

5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom;

 Incline thine ear to my understanding:

 ^5:2That thou mayest preserve discretion,

 And that thy lips may keep knowledge.

 ^5:3For the lips of a strange woman drop honey,

 And her mouth is smoother than oil:

 ^5:4But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

 Sharp as a two-edged sword.

 ^5:5Her feet go down to death;

 Her steps take hold on Sheol;

 ^5:6So that she findeth not the level path of life:

 Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not.
 
 

 ^5:7Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,

 And depart not from the words of my mouth.

 ^5:8Remove thy way far from her,

 And come not nigh the door of her house;

 ^5:9Lest thou give thine honor unto others,

 And thy years unto the cruel;

 ^5:10Lest strangers be filled with thy strength,

 And thy labors be in the house of an alien,

 ^5:11And thou mourn at thy latter end,

 When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

 ^5:12And say, How have I hated instruction,

 And my heart despised reproof;

 ^5:13Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,

 Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

 ^5:14I was well-nigh in all evil

 In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
 
 

 ^5:15Drink waters out of thine own cistern,

 And running waters out of thine own well.

 ^5:16Should thy springs be dispersed abroad,

 And streams of water in the streets?

 ^5:17Let them be for thyself alone,

 And not for strangers with thee.

 ^5:18Let thy fountain be blessed;

 And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.

 ^5:19As a loving hind and a pleasant doe,

 Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;

 And be thou ravished always with her love.

 ^5:20For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,

 And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

 ^5:21For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah;

 And he maketh level all his paths.

 ^5:22His own iniquities shall take the wicked,

 And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

 ^5:23He shall die for lack of instruction;

 And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.