- 1
- 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 her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
- 5
- Her feet go down to death;
her steps take hold on the nether-world;
- 6
- Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.
- 7
- Now therefore, O ye children, 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 thy vigour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;
- 10
- Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in the house of an alien;
- 11
- And thou moan, when thine end cometh, 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 hearkened to 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 congregation and assembly."
- 15
- Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
- 16
- Let thy springs be dispersed abroad, and courses of water in the streets.
- 17
- Let them be only thine own, and not strangers" with thee.
- 18
- Let thy fountain be blessed;
and have joy of the wife of thy youth.
- 19
- A lovely hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times;
with her love be thou ravished always.
- 20
- Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?
- 21
- For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and He maketh even all his paths.
- 22
- His own iniquities shall ensnare 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 reel.
|