Proverbs 5

English NASU 1989 - New American Standard Update - Only for Website

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

2That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.

3The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

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

5Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;

6Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.

7So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.

8Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,

9Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;

10Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;

11And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;

12And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!

13Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!

14I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"

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

16How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?

17Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;

18And have joy of the wife of your youth,

19your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually,

20Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?

21For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;

22By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;

23He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.

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