[1] My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, [2] that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. [3] Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, [4] in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. [5] Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. [6] She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. [7] So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. [8] Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, [9] lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; [10] lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. [11] At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, [12] and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! [13] I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. [14] I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” [15] Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. [16] Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? [17] Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. [18] May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: [19] A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. [20] Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? [21] For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. [22] The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. [23] He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
