⁹ Then you will understand^(G) what is right and just
    and fair—every good path.
¹⁰ For wisdom will enter your heart,^(H)
    and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.
¹¹ Discretion will protect you,
    and understanding will guard you.^(I)

¹² Wisdom will save^(J) you from the ways of wicked men,
    from men whose words are perverse,
¹³ who have left the straight paths
    to walk in dark ways,^(K)
14 who delight in doing wrong
    and rejoice in the perverseness of evil,^(L)
15 whose paths are crooked^(M)
    and who are devious in their ways.^(N)

¹⁶ Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman,^(O)
    from the wayward woman with her seductive words,
¹⁷ who has left the partner of her youth
    and ignored the covenant she made before God.^[a](P)
18 Surely her house leads down to death
    and her paths to the spirits of the dead.^(Q)
19 None who go to her return
    or attain the paths of life.^(R)

²⁰ Thus you will walk in the ways of the good
    and keep to the paths of the righteous.

⁷ Now then, my sons, listen^(G) to me;
    do not turn aside from what I say.
⁸ Keep to a path far from her,^(H)
    do not go near the door of her house,
⁹ lest you lose your honor to others
    and your dignity^[a] to one who is cruel,
¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth
    and your toil enrich the house of another.^(I)
11 At the end of your life you will groan,
    when your flesh and body are spent.
¹² You will say, “How I hated discipline!
    How my heart spurned correction!^(J)
13 I would not obey my teachers
    or turn my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ And I was soon in serious trouble^(K)
    in the assembly of God’s people.”^(L)

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
    running water from your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets,
    your streams of water in the public squares?
¹⁷ Let them be yours alone,
    never to be shared with strangers.
¹⁸ May your fountain^(M) be blessed,
    and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.^(N)
19 A loving doe, a graceful deer^(O)—
    may her breasts satisfy you always,
    may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
²⁰ Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
    Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

²¹ For your ways are in full view^(P) of the Lord,
    and he examines^(Q) all your paths.^(R)
22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;^(S)
    the cords of their sins hold them fast.^(T)
23 For lack of discipline they will die,^(U)
    led astray by their own great folly.^(V)

¹⁴ The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit;^(A)
    a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.^(B)