rd

Proverbs 5

3 Whoredom forbidden. 9 And prodigalitie. 15 He willeth a man to live on his labours and to help others. 18 To love his wife. 22 The wicked taken in their own wickedness.
1.My son, hearken unto my wisdom, and incline thine ear unto my ^knowledge,
2.That thou maiest regard counsel, and thy lips observe knowledge.
3.For the lips aof a strange woman drop as an honey comb, and her mouth is more soft then boil.
4.But the end of her is bitter as worm wood, and sharp as a two edged sword.
5.Her cfeet go down to death, and her steps take hold on hell.
6.She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are dmoveable: thou canst not know them.
7.Hear ye me now therefore, ô children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8.Keep thy way far from her, and come not near the door of her house,
9.Lest thou give thine ehonour unto others, and thy years to the cruel:
10.Lest the stranger should be filled with thy strength, and thy flabours be in the house of a stranger,
11.And thou mourn at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy body)
12.And say, How have I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
13.And have not obeied the voice of them that taught me, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14.I was almost brought into all evil in the middes of the Congregation and gassembly.
15.¶ Drink the water of hthy cistern, and of the rivers out of the middes of thine own well.
16.Let thy fountains flow forth, and the rivers of waters in the streets.
17.But let them be thine, even ithine only, and not the strangers with thee.
18.Let thy kfountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy lyouth.
19.Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe: let her breasts satisfy thee at all times, and delight in her love continually.
20.For why shuldest thou ^delight, my son, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21.For the ways of man are before the meyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his paths.
22.His own iniquities shall take the wicked him self, and he shalbe holden with the cords of his own sin.
23.He shall ndie for faute of instruction, and shall go astray through his great folly.

Notes

1-^.
Or, understanding.
3-a.
That is, an harlot which gives herself to another then to her husband.
3-b.
By oil and honey he means flattering and crafty enticements.
5-c.
All her doings lead to destruction.
6-d.
She has ever new means to allure to wickedness.
9-e.
That is, your strength and goods to her that will have no pity upon these as is read of Samson, and the prodigal son.
10-f.
The goods gotten by your travail.
14-g.
Although I was faithfully instructed in the truth, yet had I almost fallen to utter shame and destruction, notwithstanding my good bringing up in the assemble of the godly.
15-h.
He teaches us sobriety, exhorting us to live of our own labours and to be beneficial to the godly that want.
17-i.
Distribute them not to the wicked and infidels, but reserve them for yourself, your family and them that are of the household of faith.
18-k.
Your children which shall come of you in great abundance, showing that God blesses marriage and curses whoredom.
18-l.
Which you did marry in your youth.
20-^.
Or, go astray with a stranger?
21-m.
He declares that except man do join to his wife both in heart and in outward conversation, that he shall not escape the judgements of God.
23-n.
Because he will not give ear to God’s word and be admonished.