⁷ And now, my child,^[b] listen to me,
    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.^(D)
8 Keep your way far from her,
    and do not go near the door of her house,^(E)
9 lest you give your honor to others
    and your years to the merciless,
¹⁰ and strangers take their fill of your wealth,
    and your labors go to the house of an alien,
¹¹ and at the end of your life you groan,
    when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹² and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
    and my heart despised reproof!^(F)
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
    or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ Now I am at the point of utter ruin
    in the public assembly.”

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
    flowing water from your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs be scattered abroad,
    streams of water in the streets?^(G)
17 Let them be for yourself alone
    and not for sharing with strangers.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
    and rejoice in the wife of your youth,^(H)
19     a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
May her breasts satisfy you at all times;
    may you be intoxicated always by her love.^(I)
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman
    and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?^[c](J)
21 For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord,
    and he examines all their paths.^(K)
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them,
    and they are caught in the coils of their sin.^(L)
23 They die for lack of discipline,
    and because of their great folly they are lost.^(M)

²⁰ My child, keep your father’s commandment,
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.^(A)
21 Bind them upon your heart always;
    tie them around your neck.^(B)
22 When you walk, they^[a] will lead you;
    when you lie down, they^[b] will watch over you;
    and when you awake, they^[c] will talk with you.^(C)
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
    and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,^(D)
24 to preserve you from the wife of another,^[d]
    from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.^[e](E)
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes,^(F)
26 for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^[f]
    but the wife of another stalks a man’s precious life.^(G)
27 Can fire be carried in the bosom
    without burning one’s clothes?
²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals
    without scorching the feet?
²⁹ So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife;
    no one who touches her will go unpunished.^(H)
30 Thieves are not despised who steal only
    to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
³¹ Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;
    they will forfeit all the goods of their house.^(I)
32 But he who commits adultery has no sense;
    he who does it destroys himself.^(J)
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
    and he will show no restraint when he takes revenge.^(K)
35 He will accept no compensation
    and will refuse a bribe no matter how great.

⁶ For at the window of my house
    I looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I saw among the simple ones,
    I observed among the youths,
    a young man without sense,^(E)
8 passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house^(F)
9 in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.^(G)

¹⁰ Then a woman comes toward him
    decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.
¹¹ She is loud and wayward;
    her feet do not stay at home;^(H)
12 now in the street, now in the squares,
    and at every corner she lies in wait.^(I)
13 She seizes him and kisses him,
    and with impudent face she says to him:
¹⁴ “I had to offer sacrifices,
    and today I have paid my vows;^(J)
15 so now I have come out to meet you,
    to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!
¹⁶ I have decked my couch with coverings,
    colored spreads of Egyptian linen;^(K)
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
    let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹ For my husband is not at home;
    he has gone on a long journey.
²⁰ He took a bag of money with him;
    he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.^(L)
22 Right away he follows her
    and goes like an ox to the slaughter
or bounds like a stag toward the trap^[d]
23     until an arrow pierces its entrails.
He is like a bird rushing into a snare,
    not knowing that it will cost him his life.^(M)

²⁴ And now, my children, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the words of my mouth.^(N)
25 Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;
    do not stray into her paths.^(O)
26 For many are those she has laid low,
    and numerous are her victims.^(P)
27 Her house is the way to Sheol,
    going down to the chambers of death.^(Q)