Chapter 5
Proverbs
Verse 1My son, be attentive to my wisdom;incline your ear to my understanding,Verse 2that you may keep discretion,and your lips may guard knowledge.Verse 3For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,and her speech is smoother than oil,Verse 4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,sharp as a two-edged sword.Verse 5Her feet go down to death;her steps follow the path to Sheol;Verse 6she does not ponder the path of life;her ways wander, and she does not know it.Verse 7And now, O sons, listen to me,and do not depart from the words of my mouth.Verse 8Keep your way far from her,and do not go near the door of her house,Verse 9lest you give your honor to othersand your years to the merciless,Verse 10lest strangers take their fill of your strength,and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,Verse 11and at the end of your life you groan,when your flesh and body are consumed,Verse 12and you say, “How I hated discipline,and my heart despised reproof!Verse 13I did not listen to the voice of my teachersor incline my ear to my instructors.Verse 14I am at the brink of utter ruinin the assembled congregation.”Verse 15Drink water from your own cistern,flowing water from your own well.Verse 16Should your springs be scattered abroad,streams of water in the streets?Verse 17Let them be for yourself alone,and not for strangers with you.Verse 18Let your fountain be blessed,and rejoice in the wife of your youth,Verse 19a lovely deer, a graceful doe.Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;be intoxicated always in her love.Verse 20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden womanand embrace the bosom of an adulteress?Verse 21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,and he ponders all his paths.Verse 22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.Verse 23He dies for lack of discipline,and because of his great folly he is led astray.
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The ESV text may not be quoted in any publication made available to the public by a Creative Commons license. The ESV may not be translated into any other language.