⁷ Hear me therefore, O my son, and depart not from the words of my mouth. ⁸ Keep thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house: ⁹ That thou give not thine honour unto another, and thy years to the cruel; ¹⁰ That other men be not filled with thy goods, and that thy labours come not in a strange house. ¹¹ Yea, that thou mourn not at the last, when thou hast spent thy body and goods, ¹² and then say, "Alas, why hated I nurture? Why did my heart despise correction? ¹³ Wherefore was not I obedient unto the voice of my teachers, and hearken not unto them that informed me? ¹⁴ I am come almost into all misfortune, in the midst of the multitude and congregation."

¹⁵ Drink of the water of thine own well, and of the rivers that run out of thine own springs. ¹⁶ Let thy wells flow out abroad, that there may be rivers of water in the streets: ¹⁷ but let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. ¹⁸ Let thy well be blessed; and be glad with the wife of thy youth. ¹⁹ Let her be as the loving hind, and pleasant roe: let her breasts alway satisfy thee, and hold thee ever content with her love. ²⁰ My son, why wilt thou have pleasure in a harlot, and embrace the bosom of another woman? ²¹ For every man's ways are open in the sight of the LORD, and he pondereth all their goings. ²² The wickedness of the ungodly shall catch himself, and with the snares of his own sins shall he be trapped. ²³ Because he would not be reformed, he shall die: and for his great foolishness he shall be destroyed.