¹² Everything is permissible (allowable and lawful) for me; but not all things are helpful (good for me to do, expedient and profitable when considered with other things). Everything is lawful for me, but I will not become the slave of anything or be brought under its power.

¹³ Food [is intended] for the stomach and the stomach for food, but God will finally end [the functions of] both and bring them to nothing. The body is not intended for sexual immorality, but [is intended] for the Lord, and the Lord [is intended] for the body [^[a]to save, sanctify, and raise it again].

¹⁴ And God both raised the Lord to life and will also raise us up by His power.

¹⁵ Do you not see and know that your bodies are members (bodily parts) of Christ (the Messiah)? Am I therefore to take the parts of Christ and make [them] parts of a prostitute? Never! Never!

¹⁶ Or do you not know and realize that when a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? The two, it is written, shall become one flesh.^(A)

¹⁷ But the person who is united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.

¹⁸ Shun immorality and all sexual looseness [flee from impurity in thought, word, or deed]. Any other sin which a man commits is one outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.

¹⁹ Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own,

²⁰ You were bought with a price [purchased with a ^[b]preciousness and paid for, ^[c]made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.

5 My son, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you],

² That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation].

³ For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil;^(A)

⁴ But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword.

⁵ Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).

⁶ She loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.

⁷ Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation],^(B)

⁹ Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,

¹⁰ Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]—

¹¹ And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹² And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

¹³ I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me.

¹⁴ [The extent and boldness of] my sin involved almost all evil [in the estimation] of the congregation and the community.

^15 [a]Drink waters out of your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship], and fresh running waters out of your own well.

¹⁶ Should your offspring be dispersed abroad as water brooks in the streets?

¹⁷ [Confine yourself to your own wife] let your children be for you alone, and not the children of strangers with you.

¹⁸ Let your fountain [of human life] be blessed [with the rewards of fidelity], and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹ Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant doe [tender, gentle, attractive]—let her bosom satisfy you at all times, and always be transported with delight in her love.

²⁰ Why should you, my son, be infatuated with a loose woman, embrace the bosom of an outsider, and go astray?

²¹ For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and He [Who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly] carefully weighs all man’s goings.^(C)

²² His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of his sin.

²³ He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly he will go astray and be lost.