Proverbs 5

NEW JERUSALEM	CATHOLIC PUBLIC DOMAIN
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen careful y to what I know;	1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and incline your 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 so that you may guard your thinking, and so that your lips may preserve discipline. Do not pay attention to 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 loose woman are like a dripping honeycomb, and her voice is smoother than oil.
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.	4 But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;	5 Her feet descend into death, and her steps reach even to Hell.
6 far from fol owing the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.	6 They do not walk along the path of life; her steps are wandering and untraceable.
7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:	7 Therefore, my son, listen to me now, and do not withdraw 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 Make your way at a distance from her, and do not approach 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 Do not give your honor to foreigners, and your years to the cruel.
10 and strangers wil batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,	10 Otherwise, outsiders may be filled with your strength, and your labors may be in a foreign house,
11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you wil groan	11 and you may mourn in the end, when you will have consumed your flesh and your body. And so you may say:
12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned al correction;	12 “Why have I detested discipline, and why has my heart not been quieted by correction?
13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.	13 And why have I not listened to the voice of those who guided me? And why has my ear not inclined to my teachers?
14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'	14 I have almost been with all evil in the midst of the church and of the assembly.”
15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.	15 Drink water from your own cistern and from the springs of your own well.
16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:	16 Let your fountains be diverted far and wide, and divide your waters in the streets.
17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.	17 Hold them for yourself alone, and do not let strangers be partakers with you.
18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,	18 Let your spring be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your 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 a beloved doe and most pleasing fawn. Let her breasts inebriate you at all times. Be delighted continually by 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 are you seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and why are you kept warm by the bosom of another?
21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey al human paths.	21 The Lord beholds the ways of man, and he considers 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 take hold of the impious, and he is bound by the cords of his own sins.
23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.	23 He shall die, for he has not held to discipline. And by the multitude of his foolishness, he shall be deceived.