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[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, an 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 𐤉𐤇𐤅𐤇, 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.
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