| 5:1 |
My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching: |
| 5:2 |
So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge. |
| 5:3 |
For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil; |
| 5:4 |
But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword; |
| 5:5 |
Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; |
| 5:6 |
She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge. |
| 5:7 |
Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. |
| 5:8 |
Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; |
| 5:9 |
For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: |
| 5:10 |
And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; |
| 5:11 |
And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; |
| 5:12 |
And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; |
| 5:13 |
I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! |
| 5:14 |
I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. |
| 5:15 |
Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. |
| 5:16 |
Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. |
| 5:17 |
Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. |
| 5:18 |
Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. |
| 5:19 |
As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. |
| 5:20 |
Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? |
| 5:21 |
For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. |
| 5:22 |
The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. |
| 5:23 |
He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way. |
