|
[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.
|