1

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 twoedged 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 \+w LORD|strong="H3068"\+w**, 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.