1: My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding; 2: that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge. 3: For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil; 4: but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. 5: Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol. 6: Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not [whither]. 7: And now, children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8: Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9: lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel; 10: lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger; 11: and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed; 12: and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof! 13: and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me; 14: I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. 15: Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. 16: Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways. 17: Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. 18: Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth. 19: As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love. 20: And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 21: For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths. 22: His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin. 23: He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
