^{8 Ref} Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,

^{9 Ref} Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,

^{10 Ref} Lest strangers be filled `with' thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,

^{11 Ref} And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,

^{12 Ref} And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,

^{13 Ref} And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.

^{14 Ref} As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.

^{15 Ref} Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.

^{16 Ref} Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.

¹⁷ Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.

^{18 Ref} Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,

^{19 Ref} A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.

^{20 Ref} And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?