1 M y son, be attentive to my Wisdom, and incline your ear to my understanding,

2 T hat you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer.

3 F or the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

4 B ut in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword.

5 H er feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).

6 S he loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.

7 N ow therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

8 L et your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house,

9 L est you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,

10 L est strangers take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien —

11 A nd you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 A nd you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me.

14 m y sin involved almost all evil of the congregation and the community.

15 D rink waters out of your own cistern, and fresh running waters out of your own well.

16 S hould your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?

17 l et your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.

18 L et your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

19 L et her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe —let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love.

20 W hy should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray?

21 F or the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He carefully weighs all man’s goings.

22 H is own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.

23 H e will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost.