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1
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My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: |
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2
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That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. |
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3
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For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: |
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4
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. |
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5
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Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. |
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6
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Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. |
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7
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Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. |
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8
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Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: |
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9
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Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: |
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10
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Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; |
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11
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And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, |
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12
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And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; |
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13
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And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! |
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14
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I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. |
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15
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Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. |
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16
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Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. |
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17
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Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. |
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18
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Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. |
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19
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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. |
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20
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And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? |
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21
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For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. |
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22
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His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. |
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23
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He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. |