Mishle 5

1. Beni (my son), attend unto my chochmah, and bow thine ozen to my tevunah (understanding);

2. That thou mayest regard mezimah (discretion), and that thy sfatayim (lips) may keep da’as (knowledge).

3. For the sfatayim (lips) of a zarah (strange woman) drip as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than shemen (olive oil);

4. But her end is marah (bitter) as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged cherev.

5. Her raglayim go down to mavet; her steps lead to Sheol.

6. Lest thou shouldest compare [hers] to the orach chayyim, her ma’agalot (paths) are crooked, that thou canst not know them.

7. Hear me now therefore, O ye banim, and turn not from the words of my peh (mouth).

8. Remove thy derech far from her, and come not near the petach (doorway) of her bais;

9. Lest thou give thine hod (strength) unto others, and thy shanim unto the cruel one;

10. Lest zarim (strangers) be filled with thy koach; and thy toilings be in the bais nochri;

11. And thou mourn at the acharit (last, latter end, future), when thy basar and thy body are consumed,

12. And say, How have I hated musar, and my lev spurned tokhakhat (reproof);

13. And have not obeyed the voice of my morim (teachers), nor inclined mine ear to the ones who were my melamed!

14. I was at the brink of all rah (evil, ruin) in the midst of the kahal (congregation) and edah (assembly).

15. Drink mayim out of thine own bor (cistern), and running waters out of thine own well.

16. Should thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and channels of mayim in the rekhovot (town squares)?

17. Let them be only thine own, and never zarim (strangers) with thee.

18. Let thy makor (fountain) be blessed; and rejoice with the isha of thy youth.

19. Let her be as the loving deer and graceful doe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou enraptured tamid (ever) with ahavat (love of) her.

20. And why wilt thou, beni (my son), be intoxicated with a zarah (strange woman), and embrace the kheyk (bosom) of a nochriyah (foreign [heathen] woman)?

21. For the drakhim ish are before the eyes of Hashem, and He pondereth all his ma’agalot (paths).

22. His own avonot shall entrap the rashah himself, and he shall be held fast by the cords of his chattat.

23. He shall die without musar; and in the greatness of his folly he shall be led astray.