| 1 | My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear, |
| 2 | To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep. |
| 3 | For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil [is] her mouth, |
| 4 | And her latter end [is] bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword [with] mouths. |
| 5 | Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of. |
| 6 | The path of life -- lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths -- thou knowest not. |
| 7 | And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth. |
| 8 | Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house, |
| 9 | Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce, |
| 10 | Lest strangers be filled [with] thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger, |
| 11 | And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food, |
| 12 | And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised, |
| 13 | And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear. |
| 14 | As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company. |
| 15 | Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well. |
| 16 | Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters. |
| 17 | Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee. |
| 18 | Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth, |
| 19 | A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually. |
| 20 | And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman? |
| 21 | For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering. |
| 22 | His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden. |
| 23 | He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself! |
