1My son, attend to my wisdom, and apply your ear to my words;

2that you may keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives you a charge. Give no heed to a worthless woman;

3for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases your palate:

4but afterwards you will find her ²³more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.

5For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established.

6For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.

7Now then, my son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.

8Remove your way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:

9lest you give away your life to others, and your substance to the merciless:

10lest strangers be filled with your strength, and your labours come into the houses of strangers;

11And you repent at last, when the flesh of your body is consumed,

12and you shall say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!

13²⁴I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply my ear.

14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

15Drink waters out of your own vessels, and out of your own springing wells.

16Let not waters out of your fountain be spilled by you, but let your waters go into your streets.

17Let them be only your own, and let no stranger partake with you.

18Let your fountain of water be truly your own; and rejoice with the wife of your youth.

19Let your loving hart and your graceful colt company with you, and let her be considered your own, and be with you at all times; for ravished with her love you shall be greatly increased.

20Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold yourself in the arms of a woman not your own.

21For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.

22Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.

23Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.