[1] My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding: [2] That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge. [3] For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than 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 take hold on Sheol; [6] So that she findeth not the level path of life: Her ways are unstable, andshe knoweth it not. [7] Now therefore, my sons, 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 honor unto others, And thy years unto the cruel; [10] Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, And thy labors be in the house of an alien, [11] And thou mourn at thy latter end, When thy flesh and thy body are consumed, [12] And say, How have I hated instruction, And my heart despised reproof; [13] Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! [14] I was well-nigh in all evil In the midst of the assembly and congregation. [15] Drink waters out of thine own cistern, And running waters out of thine own well. [16] Should thy springs be dispersed abroad, And streams of water in the streets? [17] Let them be for thyself alone, And not for strangers with thee. [18] Let thy fountain be blessed; And rejoice in the wife of thy youth. [19] As a loving hind and a pleasant doe, Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; And be thou ravished always with her love. [20] For why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, And embrace the bosom of a foreigner? [21] For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah; And he maketh level 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 lack of instruction; And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
