Proverbs 5-6

Complete Jewish Bible

³ For the lips of a woman who is a stranger drop honey,
her mouth is smoother than oil;
⁴ but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death,
her steps lead straight to Sh’ol;
⁶ she doesn’t walk the level path of life —
her course wanders all over, but she doesn’t know it.
⁷ So now, children, listen to me;
don’t turn away from what I am saying:
⁸ distance your way from her,
stay far from the door of her house;
⁹ so that you won’t give your vigor to others
and your years to someone who is cruel,
¹⁰ so strangers won’t be filled with your strength
and what you worked for go to a foreign house.
¹¹ Then, when your flesh and bones have shrunk,
at the end of your life, you would moan,
¹² “How I hated discipline!
My whole being despised reproof,
¹³ I ignored what my teachers said,
I didn’t listen to my instructors.
¹⁴ I took part in almost every kind of evil,
and the whole community knew it.”

¹⁵ Drink the water from your own cistern,
fresh water from your own well.
¹⁶ Let what your springs produce be dispersed outside,
streams of water flowing in the streets;
¹⁷ but let them be for you alone
and not for strangers with you.
¹⁸ Let your fountain, the wife of your youth,
be blessed; find joy in her —
¹⁹ a lovely deer, a graceful fawn;
let her breasts satisfy you at all times,
always be infatuated with her love.
²⁰ My son, why be infatuated with an unknown woman?
Why embrace the body of a loose woman?
²¹ For Adonai is watching a man’s ways;
he surveys all his paths.
²² A wicked person’s own crimes will trap him,
he will be held fast by the ropes of his sin.
²³ He will die from lack of discipline;
the magnitude of his folly will make him totter and fall.

6 My son, if you have put up security for your friend,
if you committed yourself on behalf of another;
² you have been snared by the words of your mouth,
caught by the words of your own mouth.
³ Do this now, my son, and extricate yourself,
since you put yourself in your friend’s power:
go, humble yourself, and pester your friend;
⁴ give your eyes no sleep,
give your eyelids no rest;
⁵ break free, like a gazelle from the [hunter’s] trap,
like a bird from the grip of the fowler.

⁶ Go to the ant, you lazybones!
Consider its ways, and be wise.
⁷ It has no chief, overseer or ruler;
⁸ yet it provides its food in summer
and gathers its supplies at harvest-time.
⁹ Lazybones! How long will you lie there in bed?
When will you get up from your sleep?
¹⁰ “I’ll just lie here a bit, rest a little longer,
just fold my hands for a little more sleep” —
¹¹ and poverty comes marching in on you,
scarcity hits you like an invading soldier.

¹² A scoundrel, a vicious man,
lives by crooked speech,
¹³ winking his eyes, shuffling his feet,
pointing with his fingers.
¹⁴ With deceit in his heart,
he is always plotting evil and sowing discord.
¹⁵ Therefore disaster suddenly overcomes him;
unexpectedly, he is broken beyond repair.

¹⁶ There are six things Adonai hates,
seven which he detests:
¹⁷ a haughty look, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood,
¹⁸ a heart that plots wicked schemes,
feet swift in running to do evil,
¹⁹ a false witness who lies with every breath,
and him who sows strife among brothers.

²⁰ My son, obey your father’s command,
and don’t abandon your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them always on your heart,
tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they will lead you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
and when you wake up, they will talk with you.
²³ For the mitzvah is a lamp, Torah is light,
and reproofs that discipline are the way to life.

²⁴ They keep you from an evil woman,
from a loose woman’s seductive tongue.
²⁵ Don’t let your heart lust after her beauty
or allow her glance to captivate you.
²⁶ The price of a whore is a loaf of bread,
but the adulteress is hunting for a precious life.
²⁷ Can a man carry fire inside his shirt
without burning his clothes?
²⁸ Can a man walk [barefoot] on hot coals
without scorching his feet?
²⁹ So is he who has sex with his neighbor’s wife;
anyone touching her will be punished.
³⁰ A thief is not despised if he steals
only to satisfy his appetite when hungry;
³¹ but even he, if caught, must pay back sevenfold;
he may have to give up all the wealth that he owns.
³² He who commits adultery lacks sense;
he who does it destroys himself.
³³ He will get nothing but blows and contempt,
and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy drives a man into a rage;
he will show no mercy when he takes revenge;
³⁵ he will not accept compensation;
he’ll refuse every bribe, no matter how large.