Proverbs 5:9-14

New International Version

⁹lest you lose your honor to others
    and your dignity^[a] to one who is cruel,
¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth
    and your toil enrich the house of another.^(A)
¹¹At the end of your life you will groan,
    when your flesh and body are spent.
¹²You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    How my heart spurned correction!^(B)
¹³I would not obey my teachers
    or turn my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴And I was soon in serious trouble^(C)
    in the assembly of God’s people.”^(D)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Proverbs 5:9 Or years

Proverbs 5:9-14

New King James Version

⁹Lest you give your ^[a]honor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
¹⁰Lest aliens be filled with your ^[b]wealth,
And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
¹¹And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
¹²And say:
“How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
¹³I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
¹⁴I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”