1My son,
attend unto
my wisdom, and
bow thine ear
to my understanding:
2That thou
mayest regard
discretion, and that thy lips
may keep knowledge.
3For the lips
of a strange woman
drop as an honeycomb,
and her mouth
is smoother
than oil:
4But her end
is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5Her feet
go down
to death;
her steps
take hold
on hell.
6Lest thou
shouldest ponder
the path
of life,
her ways
are moveable,
that thou
canst not
know them.
7Hear me
now therefore,
O ye children, and
depart not
from the words
of my mouth.
8Remove
thy way
far from her, and
come not
nigh the door
of her house:
9Lest thou
give thine honour
unto others, and
thy years
unto the cruel:
10Lest strangers
be filled
with thy wealth;
and thy labours
be in the house
of a stranger;
11And thou mourn
at the last,
when thy flesh
and thy body
are consumed,
12And say,
How have I
hated instruction, and
my heart despised
reproof;
13And have not
obeyed the voice
of my teachers,
nor inclined mine ear
to them that instructed
me!
14I
was almost
in all evil
in the midst
of the congregation
and assembly.
15Drink waters
out of thine own cistern, and
running waters
out of
thine own well.
16Let
thy fountains be
dispersed abroad, and
rivers of waters
in the streets.
17Let them
be only thine own,
and not
strangers' with thee.
18Let
thy fountain
be blessed: and
rejoice with the wife
of thy youth.
19Let 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.
20And why wilt thou,
my son,
be ravished
with a strange woman,
and embrace
the bosom
of a stranger?
21For the ways
of man
are before the eyes
of the LORD, and
He pondereth
all his goings.
22His own iniquities
shall take
the wicked himself, and
he shall be holden
with the cords
of his sins.
23He
shall die
without instruction; and
in the greatness
of his folly
he shall
go astray.