THE
PROVERBS
Proverbs 5 ©
An exhortation to the study of wisdom, verse 1. An earnest admonition to beware of unchaste women, 3. An exhortation to a chaste and merry life in the state of wedlock, 15. God sees all things, He takes and destroys the wicked in their own sins, 21.
MY son, attend unto my 1wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
That thou mayest regard 2discretion, and that thy 3lips may keep knowledge.
¶ 4For the 5lips 6of a strange woman 7drop as an honeycomb,a and 8her mouth is smoother than oil:
But 9her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as 10a twoedged sword.
Herb feet go down to 11death; her steps 12take hold on 13hell.
14Lest thou shouldest ponder the 15path of life, her 16ways are 17moveable, 18that thou canst not 19know them.
Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
20Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
Lest thou 21give thine 22honour 23unto others, and thy 24years unto thec25cruel:
Lest 26strangers be filled 27with thy wealth; and 28thy labours be in the house of a 29stranger;
And thou 30mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
31I was almost in all 32evil 33in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
¶ 34Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running 35waters out of thine own well.
Let thy 36fountains be dispersed abroad, and 37rivers of waters in the streets.
38Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
39Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
Let her be as the 40loving hind and 41pleasant roe; let her breasts 42satisfy thee at all times; and be thou 43ravished always with her love.
And why wilt thou, my son, be 44ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a 45stranger?
For the ways 46of man are before the eyesd of the LORD, and he 47pondereth all his goings.
¶His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
He shall die 48without instruction; and in the 49greatness of his folly he shall 50go astray.