³ The lips of an adulterous woman drip with honey.
Her kiss is smoother than oil,
⁴ but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
as sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet descend to death.
Her steps lead straight to hell.
⁶ She doesn’t even think about the path of life.
Her steps wander, and she doesn’t realize it.

⁷ But now, sons,
listen to me,
and do not turn away from what I say to you.
⁸ Stay far away from her.
Do not even go near her door.
⁹ Either you will surrender your reputation to others
and ⌞the rest of⌟ your years to some cruel person,
¹⁰ or strangers will benefit from your strength
and you will have to work hard in a pagan’s house.
¹¹ Then you will groan when your end comes,
when your body and flesh are consumed.
You will say,
¹² “Oh, how I hated discipline!
How my heart despised correction!
¹³ I didn’t listen to what my teachers said to me,
nor did I keep my ear open to my instructors.
¹⁴ I almost reached total ruin
in the assembly and in the congregation.”

¹⁵ Drink water out of your own cistern
and running water from your own well.
¹⁶ Why should water flow out of your spring?
Why should your streams flow into the streets?
¹⁷ They should be yours alone,
so do not share them with strangers.
¹⁸ Let your own fountain be blessed,
and enjoy the girl you married when you were young,
¹⁹ a loving doe and a graceful deer.^[a]
Always let her breasts satisfy you.
Always be intoxicated with her love.
²⁰ Why should you, my son,
be intoxicated with an adulterous woman
and fondle a loose woman’s breast?

²¹ Each person’s ways are clearly seen by the Lord,
and he surveys all his actions.
²² A wicked person will be trapped by his own wrongs,
and he will be caught in the ropes of his own sin.
²³ He will die for his lack of discipline
and stumble around because of his great stupidity.

²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart.
Do not let her catch you with her eyes.
²⁶ A prostitute’s price is ⌞only⌟ a loaf of bread,
but a married woman hunts for ⌞your⌟ life itself.
²⁷ Can a man carry fire in his lap
without burning his clothes?
²⁸ Can anyone walk on red-hot coals
without burning his feet?
²⁹ So it is with a man who has sex with his neighbor’s wife.
None who touch her will escape punishment.
³⁰ People do not despise a thief who is hungry
when he steals to satisfy his appetite,
³¹ but when he is caught,
he has to repay it seven times.
He must give up all the possessions in his house.

³² Whoever commits adultery with a woman has no sense.
Whoever does this destroys himself.
³³ An adulterous man will find disease ^[a] and dishonor,
and his disgrace will not be blotted out,
³⁴ because jealousy arouses a husband’s fury.
The husband will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
³⁵ No amount of money will change his mind.
The largest bribe will not satisfy him.

⁶ From a window in my house I looked through my screen.
⁷ I was looking at gullible people
when I saw a young man without much sense among youths
⁸ He was crossing a street near her corner
and walking toward her house
⁹ in the twilight,
in the evening,
in the dark hours of the night.

¹⁰ A woman with an ulterior motive meets him.
She is dressed as a prostitute.
¹¹ She is loud and rebellious.
Her feet will not stay at home.
¹² One moment she is out on the street,
the next she is at the curb,
on the prowl at every corner.
¹³ She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him,
¹⁴ “I have some sacrificial meat.
Today I kept my vows.
¹⁵ That’s why I came to meet you.
Eagerly, I looked for you,
and I’ve found you.
¹⁶ I’ve made my bed,
with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.
¹⁷ I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning.
Let’s enjoy making love,
¹⁹ because my husband’s not home.
He has gone on a long trip.
²⁰ He took lots of money with him.
He won’t be home for a couple of weeks.”

²¹ With all her seductive charms, she persuades him.
With her smooth lips, she makes him give in.
²² He immediately follows her
like a steer on its way to be slaughtered,
like a ram hobbling into captivity
²³ until an arrow pierces his heart,
like a bird darting into a trap.
He does not realize that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ Now, sons,
listen to me.
Pay attention to the words from my mouth.
²⁵ Do not let your heart be turned to her ways.
Do not wander onto her paths,
²⁶ because she has brought down many victims,
and she has killed all too many.
²⁷ Her home is the way to hell
and leads to the darkest vaults of death.