5:1 | | My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching: |
5:2 | | So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge. |
5:3 | | For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil; |
5:4 | | But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword; |
5:5 | | Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; |
5:6 | | She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge. |
5:7 | | Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. |
5:8 | | Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; |
5:9 | | For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: |
5:10 | | And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; |
5:11 | | And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; |
5:12 | | And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; |
5:13 | | I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! |
5:14 | | I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. |
5:15 | | Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. |
5:16 | | Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. |
5:17 | | Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. |
5:18 | | Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. |
5:19 | | As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. |
5:20 | | Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? |
5:21 | | For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. |
5:22 | | The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. |
5:23 | | He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way. |