1My son, attend unto my wisdom;

Incline thine ear to my understanding;

2That thou mayest preserve discretion,

And that thy lips may keep knowledge.

3For the lips of a strange woman drop honey,

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 the nether-world;

6Lest she should walk the even path of life,

Her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.

7Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto me,

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 thy vigour unto others,

And thy years unto the cruel;

10Lest strangers be filled with thy strength,

And thy labours be in the house of an alien;

11And thou moan, when thine end cometh,

When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

12And say: ‘How have I hated instruction,

And my heart despised reproof;

13Neither have I hearkened to the voice of my teachers,

Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

14I was well nigh 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 springs be dispersed abroad,

And courses of water in the streets.

17Let them be only thine own,

And not strangers’ with thee.

18Let thy fountain be blessed;

And have joy of the wife of thy youth.

19A lovely hind and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;

With her love be thou ravished always.

20Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman,

And embrace the bosom of an alien?

21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,

And He maketh even all his paths.

22His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked,

And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

23He shall die for lack of instruction;

And in the greatness of his folly he shall reel.