5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen closely^[a] to my understanding^(A)
2 so that you may maintain discretion
and your lips safeguard knowledge.^(B)
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey
and her words are^[b] smoother than oil,
⁴ in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood^(C)
and as sharp as a double-edged sword.^(D)
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps head straight for Sheol.^(E)
6 She doesn’t consider the path of life;
she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
water flowing from your own well.^(I)
16 Should your springs flow in the streets,
streams in the public squares?^(J)
17 They should be for you alone
and not for you to share with strangers.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.^(K)
19 A loving deer, a graceful doe^[d]—
let her breasts always satisfy you;^(L)
be lost in her love forever.
²⁰ Why, my son, would you lose yourself
with a forbidden woman
or embrace a wayward woman?^(M)
21 For a man’s ways are before the Lord’s eyes,^(N)
and he considers all his paths.^(O)
22 A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him;^(P)
he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.^(Q)
23 He will die because there is no discipline,^(R)
and be lost because of his great stupidity.