Chapter 5

  My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding;  

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  that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge.  

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  For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;  

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  but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.  

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  Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol.  

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  Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not [whither].  

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  And now, children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.  

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  Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:  

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  lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;  

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  lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger;  

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  and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;  

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  and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!  

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  and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;  

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  I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.  

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  Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.  

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  Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways.  

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  Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.  

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  Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.  

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  As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love.  

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  And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?  

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  For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths.  

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  His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.  

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  He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.  

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