Proverbs 5-6

Proverbs 5

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

²that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge.

³For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

⁴but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol.

⁶Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not whither.

⁷And now, children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

⁹lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;

¹⁰lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil come into the house of a stranger;

¹¹and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;

¹²and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;

¹⁴I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

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

¹⁶Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways.

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

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

¹⁹As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love.

²⁰And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

²¹For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths.

²²His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

²³He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

Proverbs 6

¹My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger,

²thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend.

⁴Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids:

⁵deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise:

⁷which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

⁸provideth her bread in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

⁹How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

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

¹¹So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

¹²A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth;

¹³he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

¹⁴deceits are in his heart; he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords.

¹⁵Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy.

¹⁶These six things doth Jehovah hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

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

¹⁸a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that are swift in running to mischief;

¹⁹a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren.

²⁰My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

²¹bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck:

²²when thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

²³For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

²⁴to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

²⁵Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;

²⁶for by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.

²⁷Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned?

²⁸Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife: whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

³⁰They do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry:

³¹and if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

³²Whoso committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

³³A wound and contempt shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance;

³⁵he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou multipliest thy gifts.