Proverbs 5 Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition
Warning against Impurity and Infidelity
5 My son, be attentive to my wisdom,
incline your ear to my understanding;
2 that you may keep discretion,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey,
and her speech[a] is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to[b] Sheol;
6 she does not take heed to[c] the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house;
9 lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless;
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,[d]
and your labors go to the house of an alien;
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I was at the point of utter ruin
in the assembled congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19 a lovely hind, a graceful doe.
Let her affection fill you at all times with delight,
be infatuated always with her love.
20 Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman
and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
and he watches[e] all his paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
and he is caught in the toils of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is lost.
Footnotes
- Proverbs 5:3 Heb palate
- Proverbs 5:5 Heb lay hold of
- Proverbs 5:6 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
- Proverbs 5:10 Or wealth
- Proverbs 5:21 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
The Revised Standard Version of the Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1965, 1966 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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