Proverbs 5

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,	1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.	2 That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;	3 For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.	4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;	5 Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.
6 Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.	6 They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.	7 Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,	8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;	9 Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;	10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,
11 And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;	11 And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!	12 Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!	13 And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not indined my ear to masters?
14 I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"	14 I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.	15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?	16 Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;	17 Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 And have joy of the wife of your youth,	18 Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 your lovely hind, your graceful doe. Her love will invigorate you always, through her love you will flourish continually, (6:22) When you lie down she will watch over you, and when you wake, she will share your concerns; wherever you turn, she will guide you.	19 Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; he thou delighted continually with her love.
20 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?	20 Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another ?
21 For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;	21 The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;	22 His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.	23 He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.