Proverbs 5

NEW AMERICAN BIBLE	NEW JERUSALEM
1 My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,	1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen careful y to what I know;
2 That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.	2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,
3 The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;	3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,
4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, as sharp as a two-edged sword.	4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, 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 to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;
6 Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.	6 far from fol owing the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.
7 So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray from the words of my mouth.	7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:
8 Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,	8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house,
9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;	9 or she wil hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,
10 Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;	10 and strangers wil batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,
11 And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;	11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you wil groan
12 And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!	12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned al correction;
13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!	13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.
14 I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"	14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'
15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.	15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.
16 How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?	16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:
17 Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;	17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.
18 And have joy of the wife of your youth,	18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your 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 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that everholds you captive.
20 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?	20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs toanother?
21 For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;	21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey al human paths.
22 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;	22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.
23 He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.	23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.