| 1 | My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching: |
| 2 | So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge. |
| 3 | For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil; |
| 4 | But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword; |
| 5 | Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld; |
| 6 | She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge. |
| 7 | Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. |
| 8 | Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; |
| 9 | For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: |
| 10 | And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; |
| 11 | And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; |
| 12 | And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; |
| 13 | I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! |
| 14 | I was in almost all evil in the company of the people. |
| 15 | Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. |
| 16 | Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places. |
| 17 | Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you. |
| 18 | Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. |
| 19 | As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love. |
| 20 | Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? |
| 21 | For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. |
| 22 | The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. |
| 23 | He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way. |
