The Honeyed Lips Of The Stranger And The Sword With Two Edges

(Proverbs 5:3): "For the lips of a strange woman drip honey" — my son, beware of a harlot, that she not mislead you with the words of her lips. "And her mouth is smoother than oil" — that she not lead you astray after her voice. (Proverbs 5:4): "But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword" — Rabbi Eliezer asked Rabbi Yehoshua, "This expression, 'sharp as a two-edged sword,' what is it?" He said to him, "My son, just as the sword devours from both sides, so the harlot destroys a person's life, from the life of this world and from the life of the world to come." What is written after it: (Proverbs 5:5): "Her feet go down to death" — for she brings a person down in this world to the depth of death; and what is the depth of death? These are evil torments. "Her steps take hold of Sheol" — for even though he is judged with torments in this world, he is not saved from the judgment of Gehinnom in the time to come. (Proverbs 5:6): "Lest you weigh the path of life" — my son, do not abandon the path of life, lest you stumble after the ways of the harlot. Why? "Her ways wander, and you do not know it." But if you have listened to the words of Torah and to the sayings of my mouth, you will never stumble.