Proverbs

我兒，要留心我的智慧，側耳聽我的聰明，

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

使你謹守謀略，嘴唇保存知識。

That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

因為淫婦的嘴滴下蜂蜜，她說的話比油更滑；

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

至終卻苦似茵蔯，快如兩刃的刀。

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

她的腳下入死地，她的腳步踏住陰間。

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

她不想生命平坦的路，她的道路偏僻，自己不曉得。

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

眾子啊，現在要聽從我，不可離棄我口中的話。

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

你所行的道，要遠離淫婦，不可近她的房門，

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

恐怕你將尊榮給別人，將年歲給殘忍人；

Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

恐怕外人吃飽你的力量，你勞苦得來的歸外人的家；

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

恐怕你末了，身體和肉體都消耗，你就悲歎，

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

說：「我為甚麼恨惡訓誨、心中藐視責備，

And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

也不聽從我師傅的話，又不側耳聽那教訓我之人的話呢？

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

我幾乎陷入諸般罪惡，在眾人面前受了辱。」

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

你要喝自己池中的水，飲自己井裡的活水。

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

你的泉源豈可漲溢在外？你的河水豈可流在街上？

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

只要歸你一人，不可與外人同用。

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

要使你的泉源蒙福；要喜悅你幼年所娶的妻。

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

她如可愛的麀鹿，可喜的母鹿；願她的胸懷使你時時知足，她的愛情使你常常戀慕。

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

我兒，你為甚麼迷戀淫婦，為甚麼抱外女的胸懷？

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

因為人所行的道，都在耶和華眼前；他也修平人一切的路。

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

惡人必被自己的罪孽捉住；他必被自己的罪惡如繩索纏繞。

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

他因不受訓誨就必死亡；又因罪大而迷失。

He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.