- 1
- My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding;
- 2
- that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge.
- 3
- For the lips of the 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 Sheol.
- 6
- Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not [whither].
- 7
- And now, 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 thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;
- 10
- lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger;
- 11
- and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;
- 12
- and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!
- 13
- and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those 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
- Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways.
- 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
- As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love.
- 20
- And why shouldest thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
- 21
- For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths.
- 22
- His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
- 23
- He shall die for want of discipline;
and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
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