1. |
My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear, |
2. |
To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep. |
3. |
For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil `is' her mouth, |
4. |
And her latter end `is' bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword `with' mouths. |
5. |
Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of. |
6. |
The path of life -- lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths -- thou knowest not. |
7. |
And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth. |
8. |
Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house, |
9. |
Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce, |
10. |
Lest strangers be filled `with' thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger, |
11. |
And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food, |
12. |
And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised, |
13. |
And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear. |
14. |
As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company. |
15. |
Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well. |
16. |
Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters. |
17. |
Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee. |
18. |
Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth, |
19. |
A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually. |
20. |
And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman? |
21. |
For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering. |
22. |
His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden. |
23. |
He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself! |