15 Drink (A)water from your own cistern,
    flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your (B)springs be scattered abroad,
    streams of water (C)in the streets?
17 (D)Let them be for yourself alone,
    and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your (E)fountain be blessed,
    and (F)rejoice in (G)the wife of your youth,
19     a lovely (H)deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts (I)fill you at all times with delight;
    be intoxicated[a] always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with (J)a forbidden woman
    and embrace the bosom of (K)an adulteress?[b]
21 For (L)a man's ways are (M)before the eyes of the Lord,
    and he (N)ponders[c] all his paths.
22 The (O)iniquities of the wicked (P)ensnare him,
    and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 (Q)He dies for lack of discipline,
    and because of his great folly he is (R)led astray.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 5:19 Hebrew be led astray; also verse 20
  2. Proverbs 5:20 Hebrew a foreign woman
  3. Proverbs 5:21 Or makes level

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