WeBible

1 - My son! to my wisdom give attention, To mine understanding incline thine ear,

2 - To observe thoughtfulness, And knowledge do thy lips keep.

3 - For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And smoother than oil <FI>is<Fi> her mouth,

4 - And her latter end <FI>is<Fi> bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a sword <FI>with<Fi> mouths.

5 - Her feet are going down to death, Sheol do her steps take hold of.

6 - The path of life--lest thou ponder, Moved have her paths--thou knowest not.

7 - And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And turn not from sayings of my mouth.

8 - Keep far from off her thy way, And come not near unto the opening of her house,

9 - Lest thou give to others thy honour, And thy years to the fierce,

10 - Lest strangers be filled <FI>with<Fi> thy power, And thy labours in the house of a stranger,

11 - And thou hast howled in thy latter end, In the consumption of thy flesh and thy food,

12 - And hast said, `How have I hated instruction, And reproof hath my heart despised,

13 - And I have not hearkened to the voice of my directors, And to my teachers have not inclined mine ear.

14 - As a little thing I have been all evil, In the midst of an assembly and a company.

15 - Drink waters out of thine own cistern, Even flowing ones out of thine own well.

16 - Let thy fountains be scattered abroad, In broad places rivulets of waters.

17 - Let them be to thee for thyself, And not to strangers with thee.

18 - Let thy fountain be blessed, And rejoice because of the wife of thy youth,

19 - A hind of loves, and a roe of grace! Let her loves satisfy thee at all times, In her love magnify thyself continually.

20 - And why dost thou magnify thyself, My son, with a stranger? And embrace the bosom of a strange woman?

21 - For over-against the eyes of Jehovah are the ways of each, And all his paths He is pondering.

22 - His own iniquities do capture the wicked, And with the ropes of his sin he is holden.

23 - He dieth without instruction, And in the abundance of his folly magnifieth himself!