Proverbs 5:1-15 (Vespers, 2nd reading)
- 1
- My son, pay attention to my wisdom; lend your ear to my understanding,
- 2
- that you may preserve discretion, and your lips may keep knowledge.
- 3
- For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey, and her mouth 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 lay hold of hell.
- 6
- Lest you ponder her path of life – her ways are unstable; you do not know them.
- 7
- Therefore hear me now, my children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
- 8
- Remove 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 cruel one;
- 10
- lest aliens be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
- 11
- and you mourn at last, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
- 12
- and say: “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised correction!”
- 13
- I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
- 14
- I was on the verge of total ruin, in the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
- 15
- Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.