Proverbs 4:20-Proverbs 5:6 - Staying The Course

²⁰
My son, pay attention to my words and be willing to learn;
Open your ears to my sayings.
²¹
Do not let them escape from your sight;
Keep them in the center of your heart.
²²
For they are life to those who find them,
And healing and health to all their flesh.
²³
Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴
Put away from you a deceitful (lying, misleading) mouth,
And put devious lips far from you.
²⁵
Let your eyes look directly ahead [toward the path of moral courage]
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you [toward the path of integrity].
²⁶
Consider well and watch carefully the path of your feet,
And all your ways will be steadfast and sure.
²⁷
Do not turn away to the right nor to the left [where evil may lurk];
Turn your foot from [the path of] evil.

¹ My son, be attentive to my wisdom [godly wisdom learned by costly experience],
Incline your ear to my understanding;
²
That you may exercise discrimination and discretion (good judgment),
And your lips may reserve knowledge and answer wisely [to temptation].
³
For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey [like a honeycomb]
And her speech is smoother than oil;
⁴
But in the end she is bitter like [the extract of] wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵
Her feet go down to death;
Her steps take hold of Sheol (the nether world, the place of the dead),
⁶
So that she does not think [seriously] about the path of life;
Her ways are aimless and unstable; you cannot know where her path leads.