[1] My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, [2] in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge. [3] For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive 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 lead straight to the grave. [6] Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths have wandered, but she is not able to discern it. [7] So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak. [8] Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, [9] lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person, [10] lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house. [11] And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away. [12] And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof! [13] For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors. [14] I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!" [15] Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. [16] Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas? [17] Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. [18] May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife you married in your youth- [19] a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always. [20] But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman? [21] For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD's eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person's paths. [22] The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin. [23] He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.
