Proverbs 5:15–23

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

and running water from your own well.

¹⁶Why should your springs flow in the streets,

your streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷Let them be yours alone,

never to be shared with strangers.

¹⁸May your fountain be blessed,

and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful fawn—

may her breasts satisfy you always;

may you be captivated^d by her love forever.

²⁰Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,

or embrace the bosom of a stranger?^e

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD,

and the LORD examines^f all his paths.

²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him;

the cords of his sin entangle him.

²³He dies for lack of discipline,

led astray by his own great folly.