Bible
- 1
- MY SON, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you],
- 2
- That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation].
- 3
- For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; [Ezek. 20:30; Col. 2:8-10; II Pet. 2:14-17.]
- 4
- But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword.
- 5
- Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).
- 6
- She loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.
- 7
- Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
- 8
- Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation], [Prov. 4:15; Rom. 16:17; I Thess. 5:19-22.]
- 9
- Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,
- 10
- Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]--
- 11
- And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,
- 12
- And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
- 13
- I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me.
- 14
- [The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation and the community.
- 15
- Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well.
- 16
- Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?
- 17
- [Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.
- 18
- Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth.
- 19
- Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]--let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love.
- 20
- Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray?
- 21
- For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man's goings. [II Chron. 16:9; Job 31:4; 34:21; Prov. 15:3; Jer. 16:17; Hos. 7:2; Heb. 4:13.]
- 22
- His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.
- 23
- He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost.
Copyright Information:
Amplified Bible Copyright (c) 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, CA 90631 All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org
