¹⁶ Wisdom will save you from a woman who commits adultery.
    It will save you from a sinful woman and her tempting words.
¹⁷ She has left the man she married when she was young.
    She has broken the promise she made in front of God.
¹⁸ Surely her house leads down to death.
    Her paths lead to the spirits of the dead.
¹⁹ No one who goes to her comes back
    or reaches the paths of life.

²⁰ You will walk in the ways of good people.
    You will follow the paths of those who do right.

⁷ My sons, listen to me.
    Don’t turn away from what I say.
⁸ Stay on a path far away from that evil woman.
    Don’t even go near the door of her house.
⁹ If you do, you will lose your honor to other people.
    You will give your self-respect to someone who is mean.
¹⁰ Strangers will use up all your wealth.
    Your hard work will make someone else rich.
¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan.
    Your skin and your body will be worn out.
¹² You will say, “How I hated to take advice!
    How my heart refused to be corrected!
¹³ I would not obey my teachers.
    I wouldn’t listen to those who taught me.
¹⁴ I was soon in deep trouble.
    It happened right in front of the whole assembly of God’s people.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own well.
    Drink running water from your own spring.
¹⁶ Should your springs pour out into the streets?
    Should your streams of water pour out in public places?
¹⁷ No! Let them belong to you alone.
    Never share them with strangers.
¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed.
    May the wife you married when you were young make you happy.
¹⁹ She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer.
    May her breasts always satisfy you.
    May you always be captured by her love.
²⁰ My son, why be captured by another man’s wife?
    Why hug a woman who has gone astray?

²¹ The Lord watches your ways.
    He studies all your paths.
²² Sinners are trapped by their own evil acts.
    They are held tight by the ropes of their sins.
²³ They will die because they refused to be corrected.
    Their sins will capture them because they were very foolish.

³⁰ People don’t hate a thief who steals
    to fill his empty stomach.
³¹ But when he is caught, he must pay seven times as much as he stole.
    It may even cost him everything he has.
³² A man who commits adultery has no sense.
    Anyone who does it destroys himself.
³³ He will be beaten up and dishonored.
    His shame will never be wiped away.
³⁴ Jealousy stirs up a husband’s anger.
    He will show no mercy when he gets even.
³⁵ He won’t accept any payment.
    He won’t take any money, no matter how much he is offered.

⁶ I stood at the window of my house.
    I looked down through it.
⁷ Among those who were childish
    I saw a young man who had no sense.
⁸ He went down the street near that sinful woman’s corner.
    He walked toward her house.
⁹ The sun had gone down, and the day was fading.
    The darkness of night was falling.

¹⁰ A woman came out to meet him.
    She was dressed like a prostitute and had a clever plan.
¹¹ She was wild and pushy.
    She never stayed at home.
¹² Sometimes she’s in the streets. Sometimes she’s at other places.
    At every corner she waits.
¹³ She took hold of the young man and kissed him.
    With a bold face she spoke to him. She said,

¹⁴ “Today I offered what I promised I would.
    At home I have meat left over from my fellowship offering.
¹⁵ So I came out to meet you.
    I looked for you and have found you!
¹⁶ I have covered my bed
    with colored sheets from Egypt.
¹⁷ I’ve perfumed my bed with spices.
    I used myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning.
    Let’s enjoy ourselves by sleeping together!
¹⁹ My husband isn’t home.
    He’s gone on a long journey.
²⁰ He took his bag full of money.
    He won’t be home for several days.”

²¹ She led him astray with her clever words.
    She charmed him with her smooth talk.
²² All at once he followed her.
    He was like an ox going to be killed.
He was like a deer stepping into a trap
²³     until an arrow struck its liver.
He was like a bird rushing into a trap.
    Little did he know it would cost him his life!

²⁴ My sons, listen to me.
    Pay attention to what I say.
²⁵ Don’t let your hearts turn to her ways.
    Don’t step onto her paths.
²⁶ She has brought down a lot of men.
    She has killed a huge crowd.
²⁷ Her house is a road to the grave.
    It leads down to the place of the dead.

¹³ The woman called Foolishness is wild.
    She is childish and knows nothing.
¹⁴ She sits at the door of her house.
    She sits at the highest point of the city.
¹⁵ She calls out to those who pass by.
    She calls out to those who go straight on their way. She says,
¹⁶ “Let all who are childish come to my house!”
    She speaks to those who have no sense.
¹⁷ She says, “Stolen water is sweet.
    Food eaten in secret tastes good!”
¹⁸ But they don’t know that dead people are there.
    They don’t know that her guests are deep in the place of the dead.

¹⁴ The mouth of a woman who commits adultery is like a deep pit.
    Any man the Lord is angry with falls into it.

³ A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad.
    But a man who spends time with prostitutes wastes his father’s wealth.

²⁰ “This is the way of a woman who commits adultery.
    She eats and wipes her mouth.
    Then she says, ‘I haven’t done anything wrong.’