1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Turn your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may maintain discretion,
that your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of an adulteress drip honey.
Her mouth is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 She gives no thought to the way of life.
Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
7 Now therefore, my sons, listen to me.
Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her.
Don’t come near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to others,
and your years to the cruel one;
10 lest strangers feast on your wealth,
and your labors enrich another man’s house.
11 You will groan at your latter end,
when your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 and say, "How I have hated instruction,
and my heart despised reproof.
13 I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers,
nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
among the gathered assembly."
15 Drink water out of your own cistern,
running water out of your own well.
16 Should your springs overflow in the streets,
streams of water in the public squares?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
not for strangers with you.
18 Let your spring be blessed.
Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
19 A loving doe and a graceful deer—
let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
Be captivated always with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another?
21 For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes.
He examines all his paths.
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him.
The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
23 He will die for lack of instruction.
In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, [and] bow thine ear to my intelligence;
2 that thou may keep council and [that] thy lips may conserve knowledge.
3 For the lips of the strange [woman] drop [as] a honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother than oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, her steps uphold Sheol,
6 lest thou should ponder the path of life, her ways are unstable; thou shalt not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye sons, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,
9 lest thou give thine honour unto others and thy years unto the cruel,
10 lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours [be] in the house of a stranger,
11 and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed
12 and say, How have I hated chastening and my heart despised reproof
13 and have not obeyed the voice of those who chastened me, nor inclined my ear to those that instructed me!
14 I have been in almost every [kind of] evil, in the midst of society and of the congregation.
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, [and] rivers of [thy] waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own and not for strangers with thee.
18 Thy fountain shall be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 [Let her be as] the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love, [without eyes for anyone else].
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a woman belonging to someone else, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man [are] before the eyes of the LORD, and he weighs all his goings.
22 His [own] iniquities shall take hold of the wicked, and he shall be imprisoned with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die because he did not submit to chastening; and due to the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.: