Proverbs 5

1. ¹My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,
2. ²To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.
3. ³For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil `is' her mouth,
4. ⁴And her latter end `is' bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword `with' mouths.
5. ⁵Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of.
6. ⁶The path of life -- lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths -- thou knowest not.
7. ⁷And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.
8. ⁸Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,
9. ⁹Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,
10. ¹⁰Lest strangers be filled `with' thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,
11. ¹¹And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,
12. ¹²And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,
13. ¹³And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.
14. ¹⁴As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.
15. ¹⁵Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.
16. ¹⁶Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.
17. ¹⁷Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.
18. ¹⁸Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,
19. ¹⁹A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.
20. ²⁰And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?
21. ²¹For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.
22. ²²His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.
23. ²³He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!

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