5: 2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
5: 3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:
5: 4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5: 5 Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol;
5: 6 40So that she findeth not the level path of life; Her ways are unstable, and 41she knoweth it not.
40Or, Lest thou find the level path of life: or, Lest thou weigh carefully the path of life:
41Or, thou canst not know them.
5: 7 Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.
5: 8 Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;
5: 9 Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;
5: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy 42strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
42Or, wealth,
5: 11 And thou 43mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
43Or, groan
5: 12 And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;
5: 13 Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
5: 14 I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
5: 15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.
5: 16 44Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?
44Or, Let
5: 17 Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.
5: 18 Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
5: 19 As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And 45be thou ravished always with her love.
45Hb. go astray always with her love.
5: 20 For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
5: 21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he 46maketh level all his paths.
46Or, weigheth carefully all his paths.
5: 22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
5: 23 He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
