Proverbs 5

Common English Bible

Avoid the mysterious woman

5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
    Bend your ear to what I know,
²        so you might remain discreet,
        and your lips might guard knowledge.
³The lips of a mysterious woman drip honey,
    and her tongue is smoother than oil,
⁴    but in the end she is bitter as gall,
    sharp as a double-edged sword.
⁵Her feet go down to death;
    her steps lead to the grave.^[a]
⁶She doesn’t stay on the way of life.
    Her paths wander, but she doesn’t know it.

⁷Now sons, listen to me,
    and don’t deviate from the words of my mouth.
⁸Stay on a path that is far from her;
    don’t approach the entrance to her house.
⁹    Otherwise, you will give your strength to others,
        your years to a cruel person.
¹⁰    Otherwise, strangers will sap your strength,
        and your hard work will end up in a foreigner’s house.
¹¹You will groan at the end
    when your body and flesh are exhausted,
¹²    and you say, “How I hated instruction!
    How my heart despised correction!
¹³I didn’t listen to the voice of my instructor.
    I didn’t obey my teacher.
¹⁴I’m on the brink of utter ruin
    in the assembled community.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,
    gushing water from your own well.
¹⁶Should your fountains flood outside,
    streams of water in the public squares?
¹⁷They are yours alone,
    not for you as well as strangers.
¹⁸    May your spring be blessed.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
¹⁹    She is a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts intoxicate you all the time;
    always be drunk on her love.

²⁰Why, my son, should you lose your senses with a mysterious woman
and embrace the breasts of a foreign female?

²¹The Lord’s eyes watch over every person’s path,
    observing all their ways.
²²The wicked will be caught by their own evil acts,
    grabbed by the ropes of their own sin.
²³Those without instruction will die,
    misled by their own stupidity.