| Chapter 5 |
1 | My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
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2 | So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
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3 | For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
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4 | But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
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5 | Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;
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6 | She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
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7 | Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
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8 | Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
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9 | For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
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10 | And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
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11 | And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
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12 | And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
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13 | I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
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14 | I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
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15 | Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
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16 | Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
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17 | Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
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18 | Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
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19 | As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
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20 | Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
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21 | For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
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22 | The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
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23 | He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
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