5 My son, attend unto my wisdom;
Incline thine ear to my understanding:
² That thou mayest preserve discretion,
And that thy lips may keep knowledge.
³ For the lips of a strange woman drop honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil:
⁴ But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death;
Her steps take hold on Sheol;
^6 [a]So that she findeth not the level path of life:
Her ways are unstable, and ^[b]she knoweth it not.

⁷ Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,
And depart not from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Remove thy way far from her,
And come not nigh the door of her house;
⁹ Lest thou give thine honor unto others,
And thy years unto the cruel;
¹⁰ Lest strangers be filled with thy ^[c]strength,
And thy labors be in the house of an alien,
¹¹ And thou ^[d]mourn at thy latter end,
When thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
¹² And say, How have I hated instruction,
And my heart despised reproof;
¹³ Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
¹⁴ I was well-nigh in all evil
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.

¹⁵ Drink waters out of thine own cistern,
And running waters out of thine own well.
^16 [e]Should thy springs be dispersed abroad,
And streams of water in the streets?
¹⁷ Let them be for thyself alone,
And not for strangers with thee.
¹⁸ Let thy fountain be blessed;
And rejoice in the wife of thy youth.
¹⁹ As a loving hind and a pleasant doe,
Let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;
And ^[f]be thou ravished always with her love.
²⁰ For why shouldest thou, my son, ^[g]be ravished with a strange woman,
And embrace the bosom of a foreigner?
²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah;
And he ^[h]maketh level all his paths.
²² His own iniquities shall take the wicked,
And he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
²³ He shall die for lack of instruction;
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

²⁰ My son, keep the commandment of thy father,
And forsake not the ^[a]law of thy mother:
²¹ Bind them continually upon thy heart;
Tie them about thy neck.
²² When thou walkest, it shall lead thee;
When thou ^[b]sleepest, it shall watch over thee;
And when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.
²³ For ^[c]the commandment is a lamp; and ^[d]the law is light;
And reproofs of instruction are the way of life:
²⁴ To keep thee from the evil woman,
From the flattery of the foreigner’s tongue.
²⁵ Lust not after her beauty in thy heart;
Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
²⁶ For on account of a harlot a man is brought to a piece of bread;
And ^[e]the adulteress hunteth for the precious life.
²⁷ Can a man take fire in his bosom,
And his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk upon hot coals,
And his feet not be scorched?
²⁹ So he that goeth in to his neighbor’s wife;
Whosoever toucheth her shall not be ^[f]unpunished.
³⁰ Men do not despise a thief, if he steal
To satisfy ^[g]himself when he is hungry:
³¹ But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold;
He shall give all the substance of his house.
³² He that committeth adultery with a woman is void of ^[h]understanding:
He doeth it who would destroy his own soul.
³³ Wounds and dishonor shall he get;
And his reproach shall not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy is the rage of a man;
And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
³⁵ He will not regard any ransom;
Neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

7 My son, keep my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee.
² Keep my commandments and live;
And my law as the apple of thine eye.
³ Bind them upon thy fingers;
Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.
⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister;
And call understanding thy ^[a]kinswoman:
⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
From the foreigner that ^[b]flattereth with her words.
⁶ For at the window of my house
I looked forth through my lattice;
⁷ And I beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man void of understanding,
⁸ Passing through the street near her corner;
And he went the way to her house,
⁹ In the twilight, in the evening of the day,
In the ^[c]middle of the night and in the darkness.
¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman
With the attire of a harlot, and ^[d]wily of heart.
¹¹ (She is ^[e]clamorous and wilful;
Her feet abide not in her house:
¹² Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places,
And lieth in wait at every corner.)
¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him,
^[f]And with an impudent face she said unto him:
¹⁴ Sacrifices of peace-offerings ^[g]are with me;
This day have I paid my vows.
¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meet thee,
Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
¹⁶ I have spread my couch with ^[h]carpets of tapestry,
With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
¹⁷ I have ^[i]perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning;
Let us solace ourselves with loves.
¹⁹ For the man is not at home;
He is gone a long journey:
²⁰ He hath taken a bag of money with him;
He will come home at the full moon.
²¹ With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield;
With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along.
²² He goeth after her ^[j]straightway,
As an ox goeth to the slaughter,
Or as one in ^[k]fetters to the correction of the fool;
²³ Till an arrow strike through his liver;
As a bird hasteth to the snare,
And knoweth not that it is for his life.

²⁴ Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,
And attend to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Let not thy heart decline to her ways;
Go not astray in her paths.
²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded:
Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,
Going down to the chambers of death.