Proverbs 5

1 My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,
2 That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.
3 The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;
6 Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.
7 So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,
9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;
10 Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;
11 And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;
12 And you say, Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!
13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!
14 I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
16 How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;
18 And have joy of the wife of your youth,
19 your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually,
20 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?
21 For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;
22 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;
23 He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.

Proverbs 6

1 My son, if you have become surety to your neighbor, given your hand in pledge to another,
2 You have been snared by the utterance of your lips, caught by the words of your mouth;
3 So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor's power: Go, hurry, stir up your neighbor!
4 Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids;
5 Free yourself as a gazelle from the snare, or as a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, O sluggard, study her ways and learn wisdom;
7 For though she has no chief, no commander or ruler,
8 She procures her food in the summer, stores up her provisions in the harvest.
9 How long, O sluggard, will you rest? when will you rise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the arms to rest--
11 Then will poverty come upon you like a highway man, and want like an armed man.
12 A scoundrel, a villain, is he who deals in crooked talk.
13 He winks his eyes, shuffles his feet, makes signs with his fingers;
14 He has perversity in his heart, is always plotting evil, sows discord.
15 Therefore suddenly ruin comes upon him; in an instant he is crushed beyond cure.
16 There are six things the LORD hates, yes, seven are an abomination to him;
17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;
18 A heart that plots wicked schemes, feet that run swiftly to evil,
19 The false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.
20 Observe, my son, your father's bidding, and reject not your mother's teaching;
21 Keep them fastened over your heart always, put them around your neck;
22 When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.
23 For the bidding is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and a way to life are the reproofs of discipline;
24 To keep you from your neighbor's wife, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
25 Lust not in your heart after her beauty, let her not captivate you with her glance!
26 For the price of a loose woman may be scarcely a loaf of bread, But if she is married, she is a trap for your precious life.
27 Can a man take fire to his bosom, and his garments not burned?
28 Or can a man walk on live coals, and his feet not be scorched?
29 So with him who goes in to his neighbor's wife--none who touches her shall go unpunished.
30 Men despise not the thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry;
31 Yet if he be caught he must pay back sevenfold; all the wealth of his house he may yield up.
32 But he who commits adultery is a fool; he who would destroy himself does it.
33 A degrading beating will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away;
34 For vindictive is the husband's wrath, he will have no pity on the day of vengeance;
35 He will not consider any restitution, nor be satisfied with the greatest gifts.

Proverbs 7

1 My son, keep my words, and treasure my commands.
2 Keep my commands and live, my teaching as the apple of your eye;
3 Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to Wisdom, You are my sister! call Understanding, Friend!
5 That they may keep you from another's wife, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
6 For at the window of my house, through my lattice I looked out--
7 And I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the young men, a youth with no sense,
8 Going along the street near the corner, then walking in the direction of her house--
9 In the twilight, at dusk of day, at the time of the dark of night.
10 And lo! the woman comes to meet him, robed like a harlot, with secret designs--
11 She is fickle and unruly, in her home her feet cannot rest;
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the open squares, and at every corner she lurks in ambush--
13 When she seizes him, she kisses him, and with an impudent look says to him:
14 I owed peace offerings, and today I have fulfilled my vows;
15 So I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I have found you!
16 With coverlets I have spread my couch, with brocaded cloths of Egyptian linen;
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.
18 Come, let us drink our fill of love, until morning, let us feast on love!
19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey;
20 A bag of money he took with him, not till the full moon will he return home.
21 She wins him over by her repeated urging, with her smooth lips she leads him astray;
22 He follows her stupidly, like an ox that is led to slaughter; Like a stag that minces toward the net,
23 till an arrow pierces its liver; Like a bird that rushes into a snare, unaware that its life is at stake.
24 So now, O children, listen to me, be attentive to the words of my mouth!
25 Let not your heart turn to her ways, go not astray in her paths;
26 For many are those she has struck down dead, numerous, those she has slain.
27 Her house is made up of ways to the nether world, leading down into the chambers of death.

Proverbs 8

1 Does not Wisdom call, and Understanding raise her voice?
2 On the top of the heights along the road, at the crossroads she takes her stand;
3 By the gates at the approaches of the city, in the entryways she cries aloud:
4 To you, O men, I call; my appeal is to the children of men.
5 You simple ones, gain resource, you fools, gain sense.
6 Give heed! for noble things I speak; honesty opens my lips.
7 Yes, the truth my mouth recounts, but the wickedness my lips abhor.
8 Sincere are all the words of my mouth, no one of them is wily or crooked;
9 All of them are plain to the man of intelligence, and right to those who attain knowledge.
10 Receive my instruction in preference to silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold.
11 (For Wisdom is better than corals, and no choice possessions can compare with her.)
12 I, Wisdom, dwell with experience, and judicious knowledge I attain.
13 (The fear of the LORD is to hate evil;) Pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate.
14 Mine are counsel and advice; Mine is strength; I am understanding.
15 By me kings reign, and lawgivers establish justice;
16 By me princes govern, and nobles; all the rulers of earth.
17 Those who love me I also love, and those who seek me find me.
18 With me are riches and honor, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than gold, yes, than pure gold, and my revenue than choice silver.
20 On the way of duty I walk, along the paths of justice,
21 Granting wealth to those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
22 The LORD begot me, the first-born of his ways, the forerunner of his prodigies of long ago;
23 From of old I was poured forth, at the first, before the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no fountains or springs of water;
25 Before the mountains were settled into place, before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 While as yet the earth and the fields were not made, nor the first clods of the world.
27 When he established the heavens I was there, when he marked out the vault over the face of the deep;
28 When he made firm the skies above, when he fixed fast the foundations of the earth;
29 When he set for the sea its limit, so that the waters should not transgress his command;
30 Then was I beside him as his craftsman, and I was his delight day by day, Playing before him all the while,
31 playing on the surface of his earth; and I found delight in the sons of men.
32 So now, O children, listen to me;
33 instruction and wisdom do not reject! Happy the man who obeys me, and happy those who keep my ways,
34 Happy the man watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts;
35 For he who finds me finds life, and wins favor from the LORD;
36 But he who misses me harms himself; all who hate me love death.