Incline thine ear to my understanding:
5:2That thou mayest preserve discretion,
And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
5:3For the lips of a strange woman drop honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil:
5:4But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
Her steps take hold on Sheol;
5:6So that she findeth not the level path of life:
Her ways are unstable, and she knoweth it not.
5:7Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,
And depart not from the words of my mouth.
5:8Remove thy way far from her,
And come not nigh the door of her house;
5:9Lest thou give thine honor unto others,
And thy years unto the cruel;
5:10Lest strangers be filled with thy strength,
And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
5:11And thou mourn at thy latter end,
When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
5:12And say, How have I hated instruction,
And my heart despised reproof;
5:13Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
5:14I was well-nigh in all evil
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
5:15Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
And running waters out of thine own well.
5:16Should thy springs be dispersed abroad,
And streams of water in the streets?
5:17Let them be for thyself alone,
And not for strangers with thee.
5:18Let thy fountain be blessed;
And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
5:19As a loving hind and a pleasant doe,
Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;
And be thou ravished always with her love.
5:20For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
5:21For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah;
And he maketh level all his paths.
5:22His own iniquities shall take the wicked,
And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
5:23He shall die for lack of instruction;
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
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