Proverbs 5-6

Proverbs 5

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,

²that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

⁶She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

⁷So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

⁹lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

¹¹At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

¹⁴I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

¹⁶Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

²⁰Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

²³He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.

Proverbs 6

¹My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor, if you have struck hands in pledge with a stranger,

²if you have been trapped by the words of your lips, ensnared by the words of your mouth,

³then do this, my son, to free yourself, for you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go, humble yourself, and press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴Allow no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Walk in the manner of the ant, O slacker; observe its ways and become wise.

⁷Without a commander, without an overseer or ruler,

⁸it prepares its provisions in summer; it gathers its food at harvest.

⁹How long will you lie there, O slacker? When will you get up from your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,

¹¹and poverty will come upon you like a robber, and need like a bandit.

¹²A worthless person, a wicked man, walks with a perverse mouth,

¹³winking his eyes, speaking with his feet, and pointing with his fingers.

¹⁴With deceit in his heart he devises evil; he continually sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in an instant he will be shattered beyond recovery.

¹⁶There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are detestable to Him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,

¹⁹a false witness who gives false testimony, and one who stirs up discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

²³For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

²⁴to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.

²⁵Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

²⁷Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

²⁹So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Men do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.

³¹Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold; he must give up all the wealth of his house.

³²He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

³³Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a husband, and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.

³⁵He will not be appeased by any ransom, or persuaded by lavish gifts.