- 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding:
- 2that you may maintain discretion, that your lips may preserve knowledge.
- 3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey. Her mouth is smoother than oil,
- 4But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
- 5Her feet go down to death. Her steps lead straight to Sheol.
- 6She gives no thought to the way of life. Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.
- 7Now therefore, my sons, listen to me. Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
- 8Remove your way far from her. Don’t come near the door of her house,
- 9lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel one;
- 10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
- 11You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
- 12and say, “How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
- 13neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
- 14I have come to the brink of utter ruin, in the midst of the gathered assembly.”
- 15Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.
- 16Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?
- 17Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.
- 18Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
- 19A loving doe and a graceful deer— let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.
- 20For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?
- 21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord. He examines all his paths.
- 22The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
- 23He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.