[1] My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding:
[2] That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
[3] For the lips of a strange woman drop 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 take hold on Sheol;
[6] So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, andshe knoweth it not.
[7] Now therefore, mysons, hearken unto me, And depart not from the words of my mouth.
[8] Remove thy way far from her, And come not nigh the door of her house;
[9] Lest thou give thine honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel;
[10] Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
[11] And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
[12] And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof;
[13] Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
[14] I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation.
[15] Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well.
[16] Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets?
[17] Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee.
[18] Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
[19] Asa loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love.
[20] For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
[21] For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level all his paths.
[22] His own iniquities shall take the wicked, And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
[23] He shall die for lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
