Proverbs 5

New International Version

• 1. My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my words of insight,
• 2. that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
• 3. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
• 4. but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
• 5. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
• 6. She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths are crooked, but she knows it not.
• 7. Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.
• 8. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,
• 9. lest you give your best strength to others and your years to one who is cruel,
• 10. lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house.
• 11. At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
• 12. You will say, "How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!
• 13. I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors.
• 14. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly."
• 15. Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
• 16. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
• 17. Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
• 18. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
• 19. A loving doe, a graceful deer- may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love.
• 20. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
• 21. For a man's ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all his paths.
• 22. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him; the cords of his sin hold him fast.
• 23. He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

New International Version