| 1 My son, pay heed to my wisdom and listen to my insights; | |
| 2 remember my counsel and let your lips not depart from this knowledge. | |
| 3 Know that the lips of the adulteress are sweet as honey and her words smoother than oil, | |
| 4 but the outcome is bitter as herbs. It is as sharp as a double-edged sword. | |
| 5 Her feet go down to the grave and her steps lead to death. | |
| 6 She pays no attention to the path of life and strays without knowing it. | |
| 7 Now then, my son, listen to me and do not forget my words: | |
| 8 Stay away from her and never approach the door of her house, | |
| 9 lest you surrender your honor to strangers and your best years to cruel men, | |
| 10 lest others benefit from your goods, and your earnings go to an alien house. | |
| 11 You will complain in the end, when your body and flesh are already devoured and | |
| 12 you will say, “Why did I reject instruction and turn my back on sound advice? | |
| 13 Why did I not listen to the voice of my teachers and follow their counsel? | |
| 14 For I have come to the depths of disgrace in the midst of the whole community.” | |
| 15 Drink, then, from the water of your own cistern, from that which flows in your own well. | |
| 16 Do not let your fountains be wasted elsewhere nor in the public streets. | |
| 17 They are for you alone and not for strangers. | |
| 18 May your fountainhead be blessed and may you find joy in the wife of your youth, | |
| 19 your beautiful hind and graceful gazelle! May her breasts be your delight at all times: be always in love with her. | |
| 20 My son, why be infatuated with an adulteress and embrace a strange woman? | |
| 21 For Yahweh watches the ways of men and he observes all their paths. | |
| 22 The wicked will be caught in his own evil and remain entangled in the nets of his own sin. | |
| 23 He will die for want of discipline and will drown in the rising tide of his own evil. | |
