[1] My son, be attentive to my wisdom, incline your ear to my
understanding; [2] that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard
knowledge. [3] For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is
smoother than oil; [4] but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a
two-edged sword. [5] Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path
to Sheol; [6] she does not take heed to the path of life; her ways wander,
and she does not know it. [7] And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not
depart from the words of my mouth. [8] Keep your way far from her, and do
not go near the door of her house; [9] lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless; [10] lest strangers take their fill of
your strength, and your labors go to the house of an alien; [11] and at the
end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, [12] and
you say, "How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! [13] I did
not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
[14] I was at the point of utter ruin in the assembled congregation." [15]
Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. [16]
Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
[17] Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. [18]
Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, [19] a
lovely hind, a graceful doe. Let her affection fill you at all times with
delight, be infatuated always with her love. [20] Why should you be
infatuated, my son, with a loose woman and embrace the bosom of an
adventuress? [21] For a man's ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he
watches all his paths. [22] The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and
he is caught in the toils of his sin. [23] He dies for lack of discipline,
and because of his great folly he is lost.
