⁷ And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Keep your way far from her,
    and do not go near the door of her house;
⁹ lest you give your honor to others
    and your years to the merciless;
¹⁰ lest strangers take their fill of your strength,^[d]
    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, “How I hated discipline,
    and my heart despised reproof!
¹³ I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
    or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ I was at the point of utter ruin
    in the assembled congregation.”

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?
¹⁷ Let them be for yourself alone,
    and not for strangers with you.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
    and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
¹⁹     a lovely hind, a graceful doe.
Let her affection fill you at all times with delight,
    be infatuated always with her love.
²⁰ Why should you be infatuated, my son, with a loose woman
    and embrace the bosom of an adventuress?
²¹ For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
    and he watches^[e] all his paths.
²² The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
    and he is caught in the toils of his sin.
²³ He dies for lack of discipline,
    and because of his great folly he is lost.

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them upon your heart always;
    tie them about your neck.
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.
²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
    and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
²⁴ to preserve you from the evil woman,
    from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.
²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
²⁶ for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,^[d]
    but an adulteress^[e] stalks a man’s very life.
²⁷ Can a man carry 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 is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
    none who touches her will go unpunished.
³⁰ Do not men despise^[f] a thief if he steals
    to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
³¹ And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
    he will give all the goods of his house.
³² He who commits adultery has no sense;
    he who does it destroys himself.
³³ Wounds and dishonor will he get,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy makes a man furious,
    and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will accept no compensation,
    nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.

⁶ For at the window of my house
    I have looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I have seen among the simple,
    I have perceived among the youths,
    a young man without sense,
⁸ passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰ And lo, a woman meets him,
    dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.^[a]
11 She is loud and wayward,
    her feet do not stay at home;
¹² now in the street, now in the market,
    and at every corner she lies in wait.
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;
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;
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till 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;
    at full moon he will come home.”

²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.
²² All at once he follows her,
    as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast^[b]
23     till an arrow pierces its entrails;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
    he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ And now, O sons, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Let not your heart turn aside to her ways,
    do not stray into her paths;
²⁶ for many a victim has she laid low;
    yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,
    going down to the chambers of death.