Avoid Seduction
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen closely Z to my understanding t
2 so that you may maintain discretion
and your lips safeguard knowledge. u
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey
and her words are A smoother than oil,
4 in the end she’s as bitter as wormwood v
and as sharp as a double-edged sword. w
her steps head straight for Sheol. x
6 She doesn’t consider the path of life;
she doesn’t know that her ways are unstable.
7 So now, sons, listen to me,
and don’t turn away from the words from my mouth. y
Don’t go near the door of her house. z
9 Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others
and your years to someone cruel;
10 strangers will drain your resources,
and your hard-earned pay will end up in a foreigner’s house.
11 At the end of your life, you will lament
when your physical body has been consumed,
12 and you will say, “How I hated discipline,
and how my heart despised correction. a
or listen closely B to my instructors.
14 I am on the verge of complete ruin
before the entire community.”
Enjoy Marriage
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
water flowing from your own well. b
16 Should your springs flow in the streets,
streams in the public squares? c
17 They should be for you alone
and not for you to share with strangers.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. d
19 A loving deer, a graceful doe C—
let her breasts always satisfy you; e
be lost in her love forever.
20 Why, my son, would you lose yourself
with a forbidden woman
or embrace a wayward woman? f
21 For a man’s ways are before the LORD’S eyes, g
and he considers all his paths. h
22 A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him; i
he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin. j
23 He will die because there is no discipline, k
and be lost because of his great stupidity.