Chapter 5

Again wisdom dehorteth from fornication (carnal and spiritual) ℣.6 shewing that in the end sinners shall see and feel the effect of their folly: ℣.20 which God seeth and will punish.

1. 1

   My son, attend to my wisdom, and to my prudence incline thine ear, mayst keep cogitations, and thy lips

2. 2

   that thou preserve discipline.

3. 3

   Attend not to the deceipt of a woman: for the lips of an harlot are as a honey comb distilling, and her throat neater than oil.

4. 4

   But her later ends are bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two edged sword.

5. 5

   Her feet go down into death, and her steps penetrate unto hell.

6. 6

   They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unsearchable.

7. 7

   Now therefore my son hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

8. 8

   Make thy way far from her, and approach not to the doors of her house.

9. 9

   Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.

10. 10

    Lest perhaps strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in an other man's house,

11. 11

    and thou mourn in the end, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:

12. 12

    Why have I detested discipline, and my heart consented not to reprehensions,

13. 13

    nor I heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined mine ear to masters?

14. 14

    I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the Church and of the synagogue.

15. 15

    Drink water of thine own cistern, and the streams of thy well:

16. 16

    Let thy fountains be derived abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters,

17. 17

    Have them alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.

18. 18

    Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the woman of thy youth:

19. 19

    a hind most dear, and a most grateful fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all time, in her love be thou delighted continually.

20. 20

    Why art thou seduced my son of a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of an other?

21. 21

    Our Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.

22. 22

    His own iniquities take the impious, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his sins.

23. 23

    He shall die because he hath not had discipline, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.