Catholic Evangelization Training Center
Training in the NEW Evangelization
Proverbs Chapter 5-8
1 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 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 Sheol;
6 she does not take heed to 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, 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 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.
1 My son, if you have become surety for your neighbor, have given your pledge for a stranger;
2 if you are snared in the utterance of your lips, caught in the words of your mouth;
3 then do this, my son, and save yourself, for you have come into your neighbor's power: go, hasten, and importune your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hunter, like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
6 Go to the ant, O sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief, officer or ruler,
8 she prepares her food in summer, and gathers her sustenance in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard? When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a vagabond, and want like an armed man.
12 A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, scrapes with his feet, points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.
16 There are six things which the LORD hates, seven which are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies, and a man who sows discord among brothers.
20 My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching.
21 Bind them upon your heart always; tie them about your neck.
22 When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26 for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread, but an adulteress stalks a man's very life.
27 Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk upon hot coals and his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished.
30 Do not men despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
31 And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.
32 He who commits adultery has no sense; he who does it destroys himself.
33 Wounds and dishonor will he get, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
35 He will accept no compensation, nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.
1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
2 keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;
3 bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend;
5 to preserve you from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.
6 For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
7 and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man without sense,
8 passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
9 in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
10 And lo, a woman meets him, dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.
11 She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home;
12 now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
13 She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:
14 "I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
15 so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
16 I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
19 For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
20 he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home."
21 With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
22 All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
23 till an arrow pierces its entrails; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
24 And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
26 for many a victim has she laid low; yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.
1 Does not wisdom call, does not understanding raise her voice?
2 On the heights beside the way, in the paths she takes her stand;
3 beside the gates in front of the town, at the entrance of the portals she cries aloud:
4 "To you, O men, I call, and my cry is to the sons of men.
5 O simple ones, learn prudence; O foolish men, pay attention.
6 Hear, for I will speak noble things, and from my lips will come what is right;
7 for my mouth will utter truth; wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
8 All the words of my mouth are righteous; there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
9 They are all straight to him who understands and right to those who find knowledge.
10 Take my instruction instead of silver, and knowledge rather than choice gold;
11 for wisdom is better than jewels, and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
12 I, wisdom, dwell in prudence, and I find knowledge and discretion.
13 The fear of the LORD is hatred of evil. Pride and arrogance and the way of evil and perverted speech I hate.
14 I have counsel and sound wisdom, I have insight, I have strength.
15 By me kings reign, and rulers decree what is just;
16 by me princes rule, and nobles govern the earth.
17 I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me.
18 Riches and honor are with me, enduring wealth and prosperity.
19 My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold, and my yield than choice silver.
20 I walk in the way of righteousness, in the paths of justice,
21 endowing with wealth those who love me, and filling their treasuries.
22 The LORD created me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
23 Ages ago I was set up, at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
24 When there were no depths I was brought forth, when there were no springs abounding with water.
25 Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills, I was brought forth;
26 before he had made the earth with its fields, or the first of the dust of the world.
27 When he established the heavens, I was there, when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
28 when he made firm the skies above, when he established the fountains of the deep,
29 when he assigned to the sea its limit, so that the waters might not transgress his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth,
30 then I was beside him, like a master workman; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always,
31 rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the sons of men.
32 And now, my sons, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways.
33 Hear instruction and be wise, and do not neglect it.
34 Happy is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting beside my doors.
35 For he who finds me finds life and obtains favor from the LORD;
36 but he who misses me injures himself; all who hate me love death."