Proverbs 5

NEW JERUSALEM	NEW AMERICAN BIBLE
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen careful y to what I know;	1 My son, to my wisdom be attentive, to my knowledge incline your ear,
2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman,	2 That discretion may watch over you, and understanding may guard you.
3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil,	3 The lips of an adulteress drip with honey, and her mouth 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, as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps;	5 Her feet go down to death, to the nether world her steps attain;
6 far from fol owing the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it.	6 Lest you see before you the road to life, her paths will ramble, you know not where.
7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say:	7 So now, O children, listen to me, go not astray 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 Keep your way far from her, approach not the door of her house,
9 or she wil hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity,	9 Lest you give your honor to others, and your years to a merciless one;
10 and strangers wil batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger,	10 Lest strangers have their fill of your wealth, your hard-won earnings go to an alien's house;
11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you wil groan	11 And you groan in the end, when your flesh and your body are consumed;
12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned al correction;	12 And you say, "Oh, why did I hate instruction, and my heart spurn reproof!
13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me.	13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers, nor to my instructors incline my ear!
14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.'	14 I have all but come to utter ruin, condemned by the public assembly!"
15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring.	15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares:	16 How may your water sources be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?
17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you.	17 Let your fountain be yours alone, not one shared with strangers;
18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth,	18 And have joy of 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 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.
20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs toanother?	20 Why then, my son, should you go astray for another's wife and accept the embraces of an adulteress?
21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey al human paths.	21 For each man's ways are plain to the LORD'S sight; all their paths he surveys;
22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin.	22 By his own iniquities the wicked man will be caught, in the meshes of his own sin he will be held fast;
23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly.	23 He will die from lack of discipline, through the greatness of his folly he will be lost.