1 M y son, listen to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my understanding.

My son, be attentive to my Wisdom, and incline your ear to my understanding,

2 S o you may know what is good thinking, and your lips may keep much learning.

That 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 strange woman are as sweet as honey. Her talk is as smooth as oil.

For 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 as bitter tasting as wormwood, and as sharp as a sword that cuts both ways.

But 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 hell.

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

6 S he does not think about the path of life. Her ways go this way and that, and she does not know it.

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

7 N ow then, my sons, listen to me. Do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

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

8 K eep far away from her. Do not go near the door of her house.

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

9 I f you do, you would give your strength to others, and your years to those without loving-kindness.

Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,

10 S trangers would be filled with your strength, and the fruits of your work would go to a strange house.

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

11 Y ou would cry inside yourself when your end comes, when your flesh and body are wasted away.

And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,

12 Y ou would say, “How I have hated teaching! My heart hated strong words!

And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

13 I have not listened to the voice of my teachers. I have not turned my ear to those who would teach me.

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

14 N ow I have a bad name in the meeting place of the people.”

my sin involved almost all evil of the congregation and the community.

15 D rink water from your own pool, flowing water from your own well.

Drink waters out of your own cistern, and fresh running waters out of your own well.

16 S hould the waters from your well flow away, rivers of water in the streets?

Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?

17 L et them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you.

let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.

18 L et your well be honored, and be happy with the wife you married when you were young.

Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

19 L et her be like a loving, female deer. Let her breasts please you at all times. Be filled with great joy always because of her love.

Let 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 M y son, why should you be carried away with a sinful woman and fall into the arms of a strange woman?

Why 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 a man are seen by the eyes of the Lord, and He watches all his paths.

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

22 H is own sins will trap the sinful. He will be held with the ropes of his sin.

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

23 H e will die for want of teaching, and will go the wrong way because of the greatness of his foolish ways.

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