5:1  MY SON, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you],

5:2  That you may exercise proper discrimination {and} discretion and your lips may guard {and} keep knowledge {and} the wise answer [to temptation].

5:3  For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

5:4  But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged {and} devouring sword.

5:5  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).

5:6  She loses sight of {and} walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.

5:7  Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

5:8  Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation],

5:9  Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,

5:10  Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength {and} wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]--

5:11  And you groan {and} mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,

5:12  And you say, How I hated instruction {and} discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

5:13  I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted {and} consented to those who instructed me.

5:14  [The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation {and} the community.

5:15  Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well.

5:16  Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?

5:17  [Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.

5:18  Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

5:19  Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]--let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love.

5:20  Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, {and} go astray?

5:21  For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man's goings.

5:22  His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.

5:23  He will die for lack of discipline {and} instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray {and} be lost.