5:1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
Incline your ear to my understanding,
5:2 So that you may maintain discretion
And your lips may comply with knowledge.
5:3 For the lips of an ①adulteress drip honey,
And her ②speech is smoother than oil;
▷ ①Lit strange woman ②Lit palate
5:4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5:5 Her feet go down to death,
Her steps take hold of Sheol.
5:6 ①She does not ponder the path of life;
Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.
▷ ①Lit That she not watch
5:7 Now then, my sons, listen to me
And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.
5:8 Keep your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
5:9 Otherwise you will give your vigor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
5:10 And strangers will be filled with your strength,
And your hard-earned possessions will go to the house of a foreigner;
5:11 And you will groan ①in ②the end,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;
▷ ①Or at ②Lit your end
5:12 And you say, “How I hated instruction!
And my heart disdainfully rejected rebuke!
5:13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers,
Nor incline my ear to my instructors!
5:14 I was almost in total ruin
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
5:15 Drink water from your own cistern,
And ①fresh water from your own well.
▷ ①Lit flowing
5:16 Should your springs overflow into the street,
Streams of water in the public squares?
5:17 Let them be yours alone,
And not for strangers with you.
5:18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice in the wife of your youth.
5:19 Like a loving doe and a graceful mountain goat,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
Be ①exhilarated always with her love.
▷ ①Lit intoxicated
5:20 For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an ①adulteress,
And embrace the breasts of a foreigner?
▷ ①Lit strange woman
5:21 For the ways of everyone are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He observes all his paths.
5:22 His own wrongdoings will trap the wicked,
And he will be held by the ropes of his sin.
5:23 He will die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray.