Proverbs

The Proverbs, chapter 5, New English Translation and King James Version

Chapter 5 New English Translation

Admonition to Avoid Seduction to Evil

   1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding,
   2 in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.
   3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil,
   4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
   5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
   6 Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it.
   7 So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak.
   8 Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
   9 lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person,
   10 lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house.
   11 And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away.
   12 And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof!
   13 For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors.
   14 I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!"
   15 Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well.
   16 Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas?
   17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
   18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife -
   19 a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always.
   20 But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman?
   21 For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD's eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person's paths.
   22 The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.
   23 He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.

King James Version

   1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
   2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
   3 ¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
   4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
   5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
   6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
   7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
   8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
   9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
   10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
   11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
   12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
   13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
   14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
   15 ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
   16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
   17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
   18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
   19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
   20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
   21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
   22 ¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
   23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.