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My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your ear to my prudence,
Old Testament
Proverbs 5
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so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to the deceit of a woman.
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For the lips of a loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
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But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
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Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell.
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They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
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Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw from the words of my mouth.
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Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach the doors of her house.
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Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
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Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
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and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
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"Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
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And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
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I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly."
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Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
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Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
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Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
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Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth:
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a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by her love.
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Why are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
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The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers all his steps.
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His own iniquities take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
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He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.