5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:

5:2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.

5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil:

5:4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two- edged sword.

5:5 Her feet go down to death; Her steps take hold on Sheol;

5:6 So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, [and] she knoweth [it] not.

5:7 Now therefore, [my] sons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.

5:8 Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;

5:9 Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;

5:10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors [be] in the house of an alien,

5:11 And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

5:12 And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;

5:13 Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

5:14 I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.

5:15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.

5:16 Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?

5:17 Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.

5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.

5:19 [As] a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love.

5:20 For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level all his paths.

5:22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

5:23 He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.