5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
    Turn your ear to my understanding,
² that you may maintain discretion,
    that your lips may preserve knowledge.
³ For the lips of an adulteress drip honey.
    Her mouth is smoother than oil,
⁴ but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
    and as sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death.
    Her steps lead straight to Sheol.^[a]
6 She gives no thought to the way of life.
    Her ways are crooked, and she doesn’t know it.

⁷ Now therefore, my sons, listen to me.
    Don’t depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Remove your way far from her.
    Don’t come near the door of her house,
⁹ lest you give your honor to others,
    and your years to the cruel one;
¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth,
    and your labors enrich another man’s house.
¹¹ You will groan at your latter end,
    when your flesh and your body are consumed,
¹² and say, “How I have hated instruction,
    and my heart despised reproof.
¹³ I haven’t obeyed the voice of my teachers,
    nor turned my ear to those who instructed me!
¹⁴ I have come to the brink of utter ruin,
    among the gathered assembly.”

¹⁵ Drink water out of your own cistern,
    running water out of your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets,
    streams of water in the public squares?
¹⁷ Let them be for yourself alone,
    not for strangers with you.
¹⁸ Let your spring be blessed.
    Rejoice in the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ A loving doe and a graceful deer—
    let her breasts satisfy you at all times.
    Be captivated always with her love.
²⁰ For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress?
    Why embrace the bosom of another?
²¹ For the ways of man are before Yahweh’s eyes.
    He examines all his paths.
²² The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him.
    The cords of his sin hold him firmly.
²³ He will die for lack of instruction.
    In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them continually on your heart.
    Tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, it will lead you.
    When you sleep, it will watch over you.
    When you awake, it will talk with you.
²³ For the commandment is a lamp,
    and the law is light.
    Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman,
    from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue.
²⁵ Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart,
    neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.
²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
    The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap,
    and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals,
    and his feet not be scorched?
²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife.
    Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
³⁰ Men don’t despise a thief
    if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry;
³¹ but if he is found, he shall restore seven times.
    He shall give all the wealth of his house.
³² He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding.
    He who does it destroys his own soul.
³³ He will get wounds and dishonor.
    His reproach will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband.
    He won’t spare in the day of vengeance.
³⁵ He won’t regard any ransom,
    neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

7 My son, keep my words.
    Lay up my commandments within you.
² Keep my commandments and live!
    Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
³ Bind them on your fingers.
    Write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
    Call understanding your relative,
⁵ that they may keep you from the strange woman,
    from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
⁶ For at the window of my house,
    I looked out through my lattice.
⁷ I saw among the simple ones.
    I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
⁸ passing through the street near her corner,
    he went the way to her house,
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
    in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
¹⁰ Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
    and with crafty intent.
¹¹ She is loud and defiant.
    Her feet don’t stay in her house.
¹² Now she is in the streets, now in the squares,
    and lurking at every corner.
¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him.
    With an impudent face she said to him:
¹⁴ “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me.
    Today I have paid my vows.
¹⁵ Therefore I came out to meet you,
    to diligently seek your face,
    and I have found you.
¹⁶ I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
    with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning.
    Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
¹⁹ For my husband isn’t at home.
    He has gone on a long journey.
²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him.
    He will come home at the full moon.”
²¹ With persuasive words, she led him astray.
    With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
²² He followed her immediately,
    as an ox goes to the slaughter,
    as a fool stepping into a noose.
²³ Until an arrow strikes through his liver,
    as a bird hurries to the snare,
    and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.

²⁴ Now therefore, sons, listen to me.
    Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Don’t let your heart turn to her ways.
    Don’t go astray in her paths,
²⁶ for she has thrown down many wounded.
    Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,^[a]
    going down to the rooms of death.

²⁰ “So is the way of an adulterous woman:
    She eats and wipes her mouth,
    and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’