^{1 Ref} My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:

^{2 Ref} So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.

^{3 Ref} For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

^{4 Ref} But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;

^{5 Ref} Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;

^{6 Ref} She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.

^{7 Ref} Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.

^{8 Ref} Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;

^{9 Ref} For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:

^{10 Ref} And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;

^{11 Ref} And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;

^{12 Ref} And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;

^{13 Ref} I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!

^{14 Ref} I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.

^{15 Ref} Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.

^{16 Ref} Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.

¹⁷ Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.

^{18 Ref} Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.

^{19 Ref} As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.

^{20 Ref} Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

^{21 Ref} For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.

^{22 Ref} The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.

^{23 Ref} He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.