Proverbs 5 - ESV Bible - My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your...

1 ¹My son, be attentive to my wisdom; ²incline your ear to my understanding,

2 that you may keep ³discretion, and your lips may ⁴guard knowledge.

3 For the lips of ⁵a forbidden^a woman drip honey, and her speech^b is ⁶smoother than oil,

4 but in the end she is ⁷bitter as ⁸wormwood, ⁹sharp as ¹⁰a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet ¹¹go down to death; her steps follow the path to^c Sheol;

6 she ¹²does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And ¹³now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,

9 lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless,

10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your ¹⁴labors go to the house of a foreigner,

11 and at the end of your life you ¹⁵groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 and you say, ¹⁶"How I hated discipline, and my heart ¹⁷despised reproof!

13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

14 ¹⁸I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation."

15 Drink ¹⁹water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your ²⁰springs be scattered abroad, streams of water ²¹in the streets?

17 ²²Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.

18 Let your ²³fountain be blessed, and ²⁴rejoice in ²⁵the wife of your youth,

19 a lovely ²⁶deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts ²⁷fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated^d always in her love.

20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with ²⁸a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of ²⁹an adulteress?^e

21 For ³⁰a man's ways are ³¹before the eyes of the LORD, and he ³²ponders^f all his paths.

22 The ³³iniquities of the wicked ³⁴ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

23 ³⁵He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is ³⁶led astray.

Proverbs 5 ESV