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. |