5 My son, perceive thou my wisdom, and bow down thine ear to my prudence; (My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen to my understanding of things;)

² (so) that thou keep thy thoughts (proper), and thy lips keep teaching (and thy lips speak knowingly).

³ Give thou not attention to the falseness of a woman; for the lips of an whore be an honeycomb dropping (for a whore’s lips be like a dripping honeycomb), and her throat is clearer than oil;

⁴ but the last things [of her] be (as) bitter as wormwood, and her tongue is (as) sharp as a sword carving, (or cutting,) on each side.

⁵ Her feet go down into death; and her steps pierce to hells. (Her feet go downward unto death; and her steps shall lead thee unto Sheol, or the land of the dead/and her steps shall lead thee to hell.)

⁶ Those go not by the path of life; her steps be uncertain, and may not be sought out. (They do not go on the path of life; her steps be uncertain, and should not be followed.)

⁷ Now therefore, my son, hear thou me (And so now, my son, listen to me), and go thou not away from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Make far thy way from her (Make thy way far away from her), and nigh thou not to the doors of her house.

⁹ Give thou not thine honour to aliens (Give thou not thy honour to strangers), and thy years to the cruel;

¹⁰ lest peradventure strangers be filled with thy strengths, and lest (the rewards of) thy travails be in an alien’s house; (lest perhaps strangers take all thy wealth, and the rewards of all thy efforts be in someone else’s house;)

¹¹ and thou bewail in the last days, when thou hast wasted thy flesh, and thy body;

¹² and say, Why loathed I teaching, and mine heart assented not to blamings; (and thou say, Why did I loathe discipline, and why did I not listen to rebukes;)

¹³ neither I heard the voice of men teaching me, and I bowed not down mine ear to masters?

¹⁴ Almost I was in all-evil, in the midst of the church, and of the synagogue. (I was almost uniformly despised, in the midst of the congregation, and among those in the assembly.)

¹⁵ Drink thou water of thy cistern, and the floods of thy well. (Drink thou water from thy own cistern, and out-flowings from thy own well.)

¹⁶ Thy wells be streamed forth; and part thy waters in streets. (Let thy well floweth forth; and let thy water be parted in the streets.)

¹⁷ Have thou alone them; and aliens be not thy partners. (Have thou them alone; and let not strangers be thy partners.)

¹⁸ Thy vein be blessed (Let thy fountain be blessed); and be thou glad with the woman of thy young waxing age.

¹⁹ An hind most dearworthy; and an hart calf most acceptable. Her teats fill thee in all time; and delight thou continually in the love of her. (She is like a most dearworthy deer; and a most acceptable hart calf. Let her breasts fulfill, or satisfy, thee at all times; and delight thou continually in her love.)

²⁰ My son, why art thou deceived of an alien woman; and art fostered in the bosom of another? (My son, why art thou deceived by a strange, or an unknown, woman; and why art thou comforted in the bosom of another?)

²¹ The Lord seeth the way(s) of a man; and he beholdeth all his steps.

²² The wickednesses of a wicked man take (hold of) him; and he is bound with the ropes of his sins.

²³ He shall die, for he had not learning (He shall die, for he had no discipline); and he shall be deceived in the muchliness of his folly.

²⁰ My son, keep the commandments of thy father; and forsake [thou] not the law of thy mother. (My son, obey thy father’s commands; and do not thou abandon thy mother’s instructions.)

²¹ Bind thou those continually in thine heart; and encompass to thy throat. (Bind thou them continually to thy heart; and tie them about thy neck.)

²² When thou goest, go they with thee; when thou sleepest, keep they thee (safe); and thou waking, speak with them.

²³ For the commandment of God is a lantern, and the law is light, and the blaming of teaching is the way of life; (For the commandment of God is a lantern, and the Law is a light, and the rebukes of discipline pointeth to the way of life;)

²⁴ (so) that they keep thee from an evil woman, and from a flattering tongue of a strange woman.

²⁵ Thine heart covet not the fairness of her; neither be thou taken (in) by the beckonings of her. (Do not let thy heart desire her beauty; nor be thou taken in by her beckonings.)

²⁶ For the price of a whore is scarcely a gobbet of bread; but (such) a woman taketh (away) the precious soul of a man.

²⁷ Whether a man may hide fire in his bosom, that his clothes burn not; (Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his clothes not burn?)

²⁸ either go on coals, and his feet be not burnt? (or go upon coals, and his feet not be burned?)

²⁹ So he that entereth to the wife of his neighbour; (he) shall not be clean, when he hath touched her.

³⁰ It is no great sin, when a man stealeth; for he stealeth to fill an hungry soul.

³¹ And he taken shall yield the seventhfold (And if he is caught, he shall give back sevenfold); and he shall give all the chattel of his house, and (so he) shall deliver himself.

³² But he that is an adulterer, shall lose his soul, for the poverty of heart, that is, (for the) wanting of reason.

³³ He gathereth filth, and scandal to himself; and his shame shall not be done away.

³⁴ For the fervent love and strong vengeance of the man shall not spare in the day of vengeance, (For the husband’s fervent love, and desire for revenge, shall not spare him on the day of vengeance,)

³⁵ neither shall (the husband) assent to the prayers of any; neither he shall take many gifts for ransom (nor shall he take any number of gifts for recompense).

7 My son, keep thou my words; and keep my behests to thee. (My son, remember my words; and keep my commands with thee.)

² Keep thou my behests, and thou shalt live; and my law, as the apple of thine eye. (Keep thou my commands, and thou shalt live; and my instructions, or my teaching, as the apple of thine eyes.)

³ Bind thou it in thy fingers; write thou it in the tables of thine heart. (Bind thou it to thy fingers; write thou it on the tablets of thy heart.)

⁴ Say thou to wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call thou prudence thy love (and call thou understanding, thy friend).

⁵ That it keep thee from a strange woman; and from an alien woman, that maketh her words sweet. (So that they keep thee safe from a strange woman; yea, from an unknown woman, who maketh her words sweet.)

⁶ (For she saith,) For why from the window of mine house, by the lattice, I beheld;

⁷ and I see little children, that is, fools that have little wit. I behold a young man coward, (and I see fools, who have little intelligence. I behold a cowardly young man,)

⁸ that passeth by the streets, beside the corner (who passeth along the street, beside the corner); and he goeth nigh the way of her house,

⁹ in dark time, when the day draweth to night, in the darkness and mist in the night.

¹⁰ And lo! a woman, made ready with (the) ornament of an whore to deceive souls, meeteth him,

¹¹ and she is a jangler, and going about, and unpatient of rest, and may not stand in the house with her feet; (and she is a gossip, who goeth about restlessly, yea, who cannot stand still in her own house;)

¹² and now withoutforth, now in [the] streets, now beside [the] corners, she ambusheth (him).

¹³ And she taketh (hold of), and kisseth the young man; and flattereth (him) with wooing cheer, that is, unrestful(ly), and without shame, and saith,

¹⁴ I owed sacrifices for health (I have paid my offerings for my deliverance); today I have yielded my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore I went out into thy meeting, and I desired to see thee; and I have found thee.

¹⁶ I have made (ready) my bed with cords, I have arrayed it with tapets painted of Egypt; (I have prepared my bed, yea, I have arrayed it with coloured tapestries from Egypt;)

¹⁷ I have besprinkled my bed with myrrh, and aloes, and canel (and cinnamon).

¹⁸ Come thou, be we filled with touching of teats, and use we embracings that be coveted; till the day begin to be clear.

¹⁹ For mine husband is not in his house; he is gone (away) a full long way.

²⁰ He took with him a bag of money; he shall turn again in to his house in the day of [the] full moon. (He took a bag of money with him; and he shall not return to his house until the day of the full moon.)

²¹ She bound him with many words; and she drew forth him with flatterings of lips. (And so she bound him with many words; and she drew him forth with the flattery from her lips.)

²² Anon he as an ox led to slain sacrifice followeth her, and as a jolly lamb and unknowing; and the fool knoweth not, that he is drawn to bonds, (And so at once he followeth her, like an ox led away to be slain for the offering, and like a jolly, and unknowing, lamb; and the fool knoweth not, that he is drawn into bonds,)

²³ till an arrow pierce his maw. As if a bird hasteth to the snare; and knoweth not, that it is done of the peril of his life. (until an arrow pierce his belly. Yea, like a bird that hasteneth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is done at the peril of its own life.)

²⁴ Now therefore, my son, hear thou me; and perceive the words of my mouth. (And so now, my son, listen thou to me; and understand the words that I speak.)

²⁵ Lest thy soul be drawn away in the ways of her; neither be thou deceived in the paths of her. (Lest thy life be drawn away by her ways; go thou not forth on her deceptive paths.)

²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded men; and all [the] strongest men were slain of her. (For she hath wounded, and cast down, many men; yea, even the strongest men have been slain by her.)

²⁷ The ways of hell is her house; and pierce(th) into the inner things of death. (Her house is the way, or the entrance, to Sheol/to hell; yea, it leadeth down to the land of the dead.)

¹⁴ The mouth of an alien woman is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is wroth shall fall into it. (The mouth of a woman whom thou hast been intimate with, but who is not thy wife, is a deep ditch; he to whom the Lord is angry with, shall fall into it.)