| 1 | My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding; |
| 2 | that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge. |
| 3 | For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; |
| 4 | but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. |
| 5 | Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol. |
| 6 | Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not [whither]. |
| 7 | And now, children, 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 honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel; |
| 10 | lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger; |
| 11 | and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed; |
| 12 | and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! |
| 13 | and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me; |
| 14 | I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. |
| 15 | Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. |
| 16 | Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways. |
| 17 | Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. |
| 18 | Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth. |
| 19 | As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love. |
| 20 | And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? |
| 21 | For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth 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 want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. |