¹My son, give attention to my wisdom,

Incline your ear to my understanding;

²That you may observe discretion

And your lips may reserve knowledge.

³For the lips of an adulteress drip honey

And smoother than oil is her speech;

⁴But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death,

Her steps take hold of Sheol.

⁶She does not ponder the path of life;

Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

⁷Now then, my sons, listen to me

And do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her

And do not go near the door of her house,

⁹Or you will give your vigor to others

And your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰And strangers will be filled with your strength

And your hard-earned goods will go to the house of an alien;

¹¹And you groan at your final end,

When your flesh and your body are consumed;

¹²And you say, “How I have hated instruction!

And my heart spurned reproof!

¹³“I have not listened to the voice of my teachers,

Nor inclined my ear to my instructors!

¹⁴“I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern

And fresh water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be dispersed abroad,

Streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be yours alone

And not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

And rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹As a loving hind and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

Be exhilarated always with her love.

²⁰For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress

And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?

²¹For the ways of a man are before the eyes of the LORD,

And He watches all his paths.

²²His own iniquities will capture the wicked,

And he will be held with the cords of his sin.

²³He will die for lack of instruction,

And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.