Proverbs 5

5 ¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding, ² so that you may guard discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. ³ For the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil, ⁴ but in the end she is bitter as poison, sharp as a double-edged sword. ⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of the grave. ^a a v5 Sheol: the Hebrew word for the realm of the dead — the grave, the unseen world below. ⁶ She gives no thought to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷ And now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, ⁹ lest you give your honor to others and your years to one who is cruel, ¹⁰ lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your hard-earned labors go to the house of a foreigner, ¹¹ and at your end you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, ¹² and you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised correction! ¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or heed my instructors. ¹⁴ I was at the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the assembled congregation."

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern, flowing 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, and not shared with strangers. ¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth— ¹⁹ a loving doe, a graceful deer. May her love satisfy you always; may you be captivated continually by her love. ²⁰ Why then, my son, should you be captivated by a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

²¹ For a man's ways are before the eyes of our Father, and he examines all his paths. ²² The wicked are caught by their own iniquities and held fast in the cords of their sin. ²³ He will die for lack of discipline, and he will go astray because of his great folly.