My son, pay attention to my words, and listen closely to what I say.

For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

Let your eyes look directly ahead [toward the path of moral courage]
And let your gaze be fixed straight in front of you [toward the path of integrity].

Keep a watch on your behaviour; let all your ways be rightly ordered.

Don’t turn to the right or to the left;
keep your feet away from evil.

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

Or you will give your honor to others,
And your years to the cruel one,

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

And you will groan when your life is ending,
When your flesh and your body are consumed;

And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

Neither have I obeyed the voice of my teachers, Nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Drink water from your own cistern [of a pure marriage relationship]
And fresh running water from your own well.

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

[Confine yourself to your own wife.] Let your children be yours alone,
And not the children of strangers with you.

May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife --

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.

A wicked man’s iniquities entrap him;
he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin.

He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.

My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger,

If you have been snared with the words of your lips,
If you have been trapped by the speech of your mouth,

Do this now, my son, and release yourself [from the obligation];
Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor,
Go humble yourself, and plead with your neighbor [to pay his debt and release you].

Deliver thyself as a roe from the hand of the hunter, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go unto the ant, O slothful one, See her ways and be wise;

Who having no guide, overseer, or ruler,

Provideth her meat in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.

How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

So shall thy poverty come as a robber, And thy want as an armed man.

A naughty person, a wicked man, walketh with a froward mouth.

Winking in his eye, shuffling in his foot, pointing in his fingers,

Frowardness is in his heart, he deviseth mischief continually; he soweth discord.

Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; On a sudden shall he be broken, and that without remedy.

These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

A heart that deviseth wicked purposes, Feet that are swift in running to mischief,

A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

My son, be guided by your father’s [God-given] commandment (instruction)
And do not reject the teaching of your mother;

Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Do not desire (lust after) her beauty in your heart,
Nor let her capture you with her eyelashes.

For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

Doth a man walk on the hot coals, And are his feet not scorched?

So is he who hath gone in unto the wife of his neighbour, None who doth touch her is innocent.

Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

He accepteth not the appearance of any atonement, Yea, he doth not consent, Though thou dost multiply bribes!

My son, keep my words
And treasure my commandments within you [so they are readily available to guide you].

Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come, we are filled with loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.

For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

With much of her talking she caused him to turn aside; with the smoothness of her lips she will thrust him away.

He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.

She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.

Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

Take my teaching and not silver; may you choose knowledge rather than choice gold.

For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions.

The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.

Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.