Proverbs 5

Warning Against Adultery

1 aMy son, be attentive to my wisdom;
bincline your ear to my understanding,
2that you may keep cdiscretion,
and your lips may dguard knowledge.
3For the lips of ea forbidden
Hebrew strange; also verse 20
woman drip honey,
and her speech
Hebrew palate
is hsmoother than oil,
4but in the end she is ibitter as jwormwood,
ksharp as la two-edged sword.
5Her feet mgo down to death;
her steps follow the path to
Hebrew lay hold of
Sheol;
6she odoes not ponder the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And pnow, 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 qlabors go to the house of a foreigner,
11and at the end of your life you rgroan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12and you say, sHow I hated discipline,
and my heart tdespised reproof!
13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 uI am at the brink of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
15 Drink vwater from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16Should your wsprings be scattered abroad,
streams of water xin the streets?
17 yLet them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
18Let your zfountain be blessed,
and aarejoice in abthe wife of your youth,
19a lovely acdeer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts adfill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated
Hebrew  be led astray; also verse 20
always in her love.
20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with afa forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of agan adulteress?
Hebrew  a foreign woman

21For aia man’s ways are ajbefore the eyes of the Lord,
and he akponders
Or makes level
all his paths.
22The aminiquities of the wicked anensnare him,
and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 aoHe dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is apled astray.
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