Proverbs 5

1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
    incline your ear to my understanding,
² that you may keep discretion,
    and your lips may guard knowledge.
³ For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,
    and her speech is smoother than oil,
⁴ but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
    sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death;
    her steps follow the path to Sheol;
⁶ she does not ponder the path of life;
    her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷ And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Keep your way far from her,
    and do not go near the door of her house,
⁹ lest you give your honor to others
    and your years to the merciless,
¹⁰ lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
    and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
¹¹ and at the end of your life you groan,
    when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹² and you say, “How I hated discipline,
    and my heart despised reproof!
¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
    or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ I am at the brink of utter ruin
    in the assembled congregation.”