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

My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,

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

that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

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

Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

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

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

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

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

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

She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

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

So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

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

Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

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

lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

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

lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

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

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

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

and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

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

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

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

I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

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

Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

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

Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

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

Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

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

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

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.

A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

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

Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

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

For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

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

The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

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

He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.