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.
