JPS - Proverbs - 5

5:1  My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding;

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 her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

5:5  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world;

5:6  Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.

5:7  Now therefore, O ye children, 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 thy vigour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;

5:10  Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in the house of an alien;

5:11  And thou moan, when thine end cometh, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

5:12  And say: 'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

5:13  Neither have I hearkened to 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 congregation and assembly.'

5:15  Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

5:16  Let thy springs be dispersed abroad, and courses of water in the streets.

5:17  Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

5:18  Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.

5:19  A lovely hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; with her love be thou ravished always.

5:20  Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?

5:21  For the ways of man are before the eyes of HaShem, and He maketh even all his paths.

5:22  His own iniquities shall ensnare 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 reel.