³ For the lips of the strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil,

⁴ But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵ Her feet go down to death, her steps uphold Sheol,

⁶ lest thou should ponder the path of life, her ways are unstable; thou shalt not know them.

⁷ Hear me now therefore, O ye sons, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸ Remove thy way far from her, and do not come near the door of her house,

⁹ lest thou give thine honour unto others and thy years unto the cruel,

¹⁰ lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and thy labours be in the house of a stranger,

¹¹ and thou mourn at the last when thy flesh and thy body are consumed

¹² and say, How have I hated chastening and my heart despised reproof

¹³ and have not obeyed the voice of those who chastened me, nor inclined my ear to those that instructed me!

¹⁴ I have been in almost every kind of evil, in the midst of society and of the congregation.

¹⁵ ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern and running waters out of thine own well.

¹⁶ Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of thy waters in the streets.

¹⁷ Let them be only thine own and not for strangers with thee.

¹⁸ Thy fountain shall be blessed; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

¹⁹ Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love, without eyes for anyone else.

²⁰ And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a woman belonging to someone else, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he weighs all his goings.

²² His own iniquities shall take hold of the wicked, and he shall be imprisoned with the cords of his sins.

²³ He shall die because he did not submit to chastening; and due to the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

²⁰ ¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment and forsake not the law of thy mother:

²¹ Bind them continually upon thine heart and tie them about thy neck.

²² When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

²³ For the commandment is fire, and the law is light; and reproofs of chastening are the way of life,

²⁴ to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

²⁵ Lust not after her beauty in thine heart, neither let her take thee with her eyes.

²⁶ For by means of a whorish woman a man is reduced to a piece of bread, and the woman will hunt the precious soul of the man.

²⁷ Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸ Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

²⁹ So is he that goes in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever touches her shall not be innocent.

³⁰ Men do not take a thief lightly, even if he steals to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

³¹ and once he is taken, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

³² But whosoever commits adultery with a woman has a fault in his heart; he that does it corrupts his own soul.

³³ A wound and dishonour shall he get, and his reproach shall never be wiped away.

³⁴ For the jealous rage of a man will not spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵ He will not regard any ransom; neither will he want to forgive, though thou givest many bribes.

⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call understanding thy kinswoman:

⁵ That they may keep thee from the woman belonging to someone else, from the stranger who flatters with her words.

⁶ ¶ For at the window of my house I looked through my casement

⁷ and 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, in the black and dark night;

¹⁰ and, behold, a woman met him with the attire of a harlot, and subtil of heart.

¹¹ (She is loud and stubborn; her feet do not abide in her house:

¹² Now without, now in the streets, she lies in wait at every corner.)

¹³ So she caught him and kissed him and with an impudent face said unto him,

¹⁴ I had promised sacrifices of peace; today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

¹⁷ I have 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 husband is not at home; he is gone a long journey:

²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the appointed feast day.

²¹ With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she persuaded him.

²² He went after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,

²³ until the arrow pierces through his liver. He is as a bird struggling in the snare and not knowing that it is against his own life.

²⁴ ¶ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye sons, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways; do not go astray in her paths.

²⁶ For she has caused many to fall down dead; yea, all the strong men have been slain by her.

²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

¹⁴ ¶ The mouth of strange women is a deep pit; he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

²⁶ My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.

²⁷ For a whore is a deep ditch and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

²⁸ She also lies in wait as for a prey and increases the transgressors among men.

²⁰ Such is the track of an adulterous woman; she eats, and wipes her mouth, and says, I have done no wickedness.

²¹ For three things the earth is disquieted, and the fourth it cannot bear:

²² For a slave when he reigns; and a fool when he is filled with bread;

²³ for a rejected woman when she is married; and a handmaid that is heir to her mistress.

³ Do not give thy strength nor thy ways unto the women who destroy kings.