[1] My son, attend to my wisdom, and bow your ear to my understanding, [2] that you may regard discretion, and that your lips may keep knowledge. [3] For the lips of an immoral woman drip as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil. [4] But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. [5] Her feet go down to death, her steps take hold of Sheol. [6] She does not ponder the path of life; her ways are unstable, and she does not know it. [7] Hear me now therefore, O children, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. [8] Remove your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, [9] lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the cruel; [10] lest strangers be filled with your wealth, and your labors go to the house of a stranger; [11] and you mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed, [12] and say, "How I have hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! [13] And I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! [14] I was almost in utter ruin in the midst of the congregation and assembly." [15] Drink waters out of your own cistern, and running waters out of your own well. [16] Should your fountains be dispersed abroad, streams of water in the streets? [17] Let them be only your own, and not for strangers with you. [18] Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of your youth. [19] Let her be as the loving deer and pleasant doe; let her breasts satisfy you at all times; and always be enraptured with her love. [20] Why should you, my son, be intoxicated by an immoral woman, and embrace the bosom of a seductress? [21] For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He ponders all his goings. [22] His own iniquities entrap the wicked himself, and he is snared in the cords of his sins. [23] He will die for lack of instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
