Verse 1. My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
Verse 2. That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
Verse 3. For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
Verse 4. But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
Verse 5. Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.
Verse 6. They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
Verse 7. Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Verse 8. Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
Verse 9. Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
Verse 10. Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,
Verse 11. And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
Verse 12. Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
Verse 13. And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
Verse 14. I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
Verse 15. Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
Verse 16. Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
Verse 17. Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
Verse 18. Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
Verse 19. Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; be thou delighted continually with her love.
Verse 20. Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
Verse 21. The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
Verse 22. His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
Verse 23. He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.