⁷ Now, my sons, listen to me.
    Don’t ignore what I say.
⁸ Stay away from such a woman.
    Don’t even go near the door of her house.
⁹ If you do, you will give your riches to others.
    And the best years of your life will be given to someone who is cruel.
¹⁰ Strangers will enjoy your wealth.
    And what you worked so hard for will go to someone else.
¹¹ You will groan at the end of your life.
    Then your health will be gone.
¹² Then you will say, “I hated self-control!
    I would not listen when I was corrected!
¹³ I would not listen to my teachers.
    I paid no attention to what they taught me.
¹⁴ I have come very close to being completely ruined
    in front of a whole group of people.”

¹⁵ Be faithful to your own wife.
    She is like your own well of water from which you drink.
¹⁶ You wouldn’t drink from streams
    flowing in the city streets or squares.
So be satisfied with your wife,
    not those outside your home.
¹⁷ These things are yours alone.
    Don’t share them with strangers.
¹⁸ Be happy with the wife
    you married when you were young.
She gives you joys
    as your fountain gives you water.
¹⁹ She is as lovely and graceful as a deer.
    Let her love always make you happy.
    Let her love always hold you captive.
²⁰ My son, don’t be held captive by a woman who takes part in adultery.
    Don’t hold another man’s wife.

²¹ The Lord sees everything you do.
    He watches where you go.
²² An evil man will be caught in his evil ways.
    He will be tied up by his sins as if they were ropes.
²³ He will die because he does not control himself.
    He will be held captive by his own foolishness.