Proverbs 5

NEW JERUSALEM	DOUAI-RHEIMS
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen careful y to what I know;	1 My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,	2 That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous 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 bitter as wormwood, 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, Sheol the goal of her steps;	5 Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.
6 far from fol owing the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.	6 They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:	7 Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,	8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
9 or she wil hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,	9 Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
10 and strangers wil batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,	10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,
11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you wil groan	11 And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned al correction;	12 Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.	13 And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not indined my ear to masters?
14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'	14 I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.	15 Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:	16 Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.	17 Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,	18 Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
19 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that everholds you captive.	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 be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs toanother?	20 Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another ?
21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey al human paths.	21 The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.	22 His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.	23 He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.