Proverbs 5:15-6:3 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 15
- Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
- 16
- Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets?
- 17
- Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you.
- 18
- Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth.
- 19
- As a loving deer and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love.
- 20
- For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, and be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
- 21
- For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He ponders all his paths.
- 22
- His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, and he is caught in the cords of his sin.
- 23
- He shall die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
- 1
- My son, if you become surety for your friend, if you have shaken hands in pledge for a stranger,
- 2
- you are snared by the words of your mouth; you are taken by the words of your mouth.
- 3
- So do this, my son, and deliver yourself; for you have come into the hand of your friend: go and humble yourself; plead with your friend.