| 1 | My son, pay attention to my wisdom; Lend your ear to my understanding, | |
| 2 | That you may preserve discretion, And your lips may keep knowledge. | |
| 3 | For the lips of an immoral woman drip 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 lay hold of hell. | |
| 6 | Lest you ponder her path of life--Her ways are unstable; You do not know them. | |
| 7 | Therefore hear me now, my 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 one; | |
| 10 | Lest aliens be filled with your wealth, And your labors go to the house of a foreigner; | |
| 11 | And you mourn at last, When your flesh and your body are consumed, | |
| 12 | And say: "How I have hated instruction, And my heart despised correction! | |
| 13 | I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me! | |
| 14 | I was on the verge of total ruin, In the midst of the assembly and congregation." | |
| 15 | Drink water from your own cistern, And running water from 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 | As a loving deer and a graceful doe, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; And always be enraptured with her love. | |
| 20 | For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman, And be embraced in the arms of a seductress? | |
| 21 | For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, And He ponders all his paths. | |
| 22 | His own iniquities entrap the wicked man, And he is caught in the cords of his sin. | |
| 23 | He shall die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. | |