My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen carefully to my understanding.

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

So you may preserve discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge.

That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil.

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

But in the end, she is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

She does not consider the path of life; her ways wander, but she does not know it.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Now, my children, listen to me, and do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house.

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

Lest you give your vigor to others, and your years to someone cruel;

Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

Lest strangers feast on your strength, and your hard-earned wealth end up in the house of a foreigner.

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

You will say, 'How I hated discipline, and my heart despised correction!'

And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

I was on the verge of total ruin in the midst of the assembly and the congregation.

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

Should your springs be scattered abroad, your streams of water in the public squares?

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

Let them be yours alone, and not for strangers with you.

Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

May your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

A loving doe, a graceful deer—may her breasts satisfy you always, and may you always be captivated by her love.

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

Why, my son, should you be captivated by a forbidden woman or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and He examines all his paths.

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

The wicked will be caught by his own iniquities, and he will be held fast by the cords of his sin.

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

He will die for lack of discipline, and in the abundance of his folly, he will go astray.

He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.