5 My
son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2 That
thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. 3 For
the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, 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 hell. 6 Lest
thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou
canst not know them. 7 Hear
me now therefore, O ye children, 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 thy labours be in the house of
a stranger; 11 And
thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12
And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And
have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them
that instructed me! 14 I was
almost 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 Let
thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17 Let
them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. 18 Let
thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 19 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. 20 And
why wilt 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 the LORD, and he pondereth all his
goings. 22 His
own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with
the cords of his sins. 23 He
shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall
go astray.