Proverbs 5

Proverbs 5:1-23 [1]MY SON, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you], [2]That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation]. [3]For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; [Ezek. 20:30; Col. 2:8-10; II Pet. 2:14-17.] [4]But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword. [5]Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead). [6]She loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them. [7]Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. [8]Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation], [Prov. 4:15; Rom. 16:17; I Thess. 5:19-22.] [9]Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy, [10]Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]– [11]And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, [12]And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof! [13]I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me. [14][The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation and the community. [15]Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well. [16]Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets? [17][Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you. [18]Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth. [19]Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]–let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love. [20]Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray? [21]For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man’s goings. [II Chron. 16:9; Job 31:4; 34:21; Prov. 15:3; Jer. 16:17; Hos. 7:2; Heb. 4:13.] [22]His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin. [23]He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost.