1 ¶ My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my intelligence;

2 t hat thou may keep council and that thy lips may conserve knowledge.

3 F or the lips of the strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil,

4 B ut her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

5 H er feet go down to death, her steps uphold Sheol,

6 l est thou should ponder the path of life, her ways are unstable; thou shalt not know them.

7 H ear me now therefore, O ye sons, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 R emove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,

9 l est thou give thine honour unto others and thy years unto the cruel,

10 l est strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger,

11 a nd thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed

12 a nd say, How have I hated chastening and my heart despised reproof

13 a nd have not obeyed the voice of those who chastened me, nor inclined my ear to those that instructed me!

14 I have been in almost every kind of evil, in the midst of society and of the congregation.

15 ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well.

16 L et thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of thy waters in the streets.

17 L et them be only thine own and not for strangers with thee.

18 T hy fountain shall be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

19 L et her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love, without eyes for anyone else.

20 A nd why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a woman belonging to someone else, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

21 F or the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he weighs all his goings.

22 H is own iniquities shall take hold of the wicked, and he shall be imprisoned with the cords of his sins.

23 H e shall die because he did not submit to chastening; and due to the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.