Warning Against Adultery

¹wMy son, be attentive to my wisdom;

xincline your ear to my understanding,

²that you may keep ydiscretion,

and your lips may zguard knowledge.

³For the lips of aa forbidden1 woman drip honey,

and her speech2 is bsmoother than oil,

⁴but in the end she is cbitter as dwormwood,

esharp as fa two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet ggo down to death;

her steps follow the path to3 Sheol;

⁶she hdoes not ponder the path of life;

her ways wander, and she does not know it.

⁷And inow, O sons, listen to me,

and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

⁹lest you give your honor to others

and your years to the merciless,

¹⁰lest strangers take their fill of your strength,

and your jlabors go to the house of a foreigner,

¹¹and at the end of your life you kgroan,

when your flesh and body are consumed,

¹²and you say, l“How I hated discipline,

and my heart mdespised reproof!

¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers

or incline my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴nI am at the brink of utter ruin

in the assembled congregation.”

¹⁵Drink owater from your own cistern,

flowing water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your psprings be scattered abroad,

streams of water qin the streets?

¹⁷rLet them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your ofountain be blessed,

and srejoice in tthe wife of your youth,

¹⁹a lovely udeer, a graceful doe.

Let her breasts vfill you at all times with delight;

be intoxicated4 always in her love.

²⁰Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with wa forbidden woman

and embrace the bosom of wan adulteress?5

²¹For xa man's ways are ybefore the eyes of the Lord,

and he zponders6 all his paths.

²²The ainiquities of the wicked bensnare him,

and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.

²³cHe dies for lack of discipline,

and because of his great folly he is dled astray.