| 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, [and] she 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. |
