Proverbs Chapter 5 (ESV)

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

undefined that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

undefined For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

undefined but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

undefined Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol;

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

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

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

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

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

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

undefined and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

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

undefined I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.”

undefined Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

undefined Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?

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

undefined Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,

undefined a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love.

undefined Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?

undefined For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths.

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

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

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