Proverbs 5

¹My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding: ²That thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. ³For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil: ⁴But her latter end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. ⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol; ⁶So that she findeth not the level path of life: her ways are unstable andshe knoweth itnot. ⁷Now therefore, mysons, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: ⁹Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: ¹⁰Lest strangers be filled with thy strength; and thy labours bein the house of an alien; ¹¹And thou mourn at thy latter end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, ¹²And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; ¹³Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! ¹⁴I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. ¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. ¹⁶Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, and rivers of water in the streets? ¹⁷Let them be for thyself alone, and not for strangers with thee. ¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed; and rejoice in the wife of thy youth. ¹⁹Asa loving hind and a pleasant doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. ²⁰For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? ²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he maketh level all his paths. ²²His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. ²³He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.