Proverbs Chapter 5

An exhortation to fly unlawful lust, and the occasions of it.

5:1. My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence,

5:2. That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.

5:3. For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.

5:4. But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.

5:5. Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.

5:6. They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.

5:7. Now, therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

5:8. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.

5:9. Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.

5:10. Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,

5:11. And thou mourn at the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say;

5:12. Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,

5:13. And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?

5:14. I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.

5:15. Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:

5:16. Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.

5:17. Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

5:18. Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:

5:19. Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times: be thou delighted continually with her love.

5:20. Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?

5:21. The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.

5:22. His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.

5:23. He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.