⁷ Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you. ⁸ Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house; ⁹ For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men: ¹⁰ And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others; ¹¹ And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted; ¹² And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training; ¹³ I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me! ¹⁴ I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.

¹⁵ Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain. ¹⁶ 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 Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years. ¹⁹ 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 Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms? ²¹ For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales. ²² The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin. ²³ He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.