Proverbs 5
JPS Tanakh (Jewish Publication Society, 1917)
Berean Standard Bible
1My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding;
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2That thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
2that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
4in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world;
5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.
6She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
7So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house;
8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9Lest thou give thy vigour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;
9lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in the house of an alien;
10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11And thou moan, when thine end cometh, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
11At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12And say: 'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
12and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13Neither have I hearkened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.'
14I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16Let thy springs be dispersed abroad, and courses of water in the streets.
16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.
18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19A lovely hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; with her love be thou ravished always.
19A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?
20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He maketh even all his paths.
21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall reel.
23He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
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