Warning Against Adultery

1My son, pay attention to my wisdom,

Incline your ear to my discernment;

2That you may keep discretion

And that your lips may guard knowledge.

3For the lips of a strange woman drip honey

And smoother than oil is her [†]speech;

4But her end is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two-edged sword.

5Her feet go down to death,

Her steps take hold of Sheol,

6Lest she watch the path of life;

Her tracks are unstable, she does not know it.

7So now, my sons, listen to me

And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

8Keep your way far from her

And do not go near the door of her house,

9Lest you give your splendor to others

And your years to the cruel one;

10Lest strangers be satisfied by your strength

And by your painful labor, those in the house of a foreigner;

11And you groan at your [†]end,

When your flesh and your body are consumed;

12And you say, “How I have hated discipline!

And my heart spurned reproof!

13I have not listened to the voice of my instructors,

And I have not inclined my ear to my teachers!

14I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

15Drink water from your own cistern

And [†]fresh water from your own well.

16Should your springs be dispersed abroad,

Streams of water in the streets?

17Let them be for you alone,

And not for strangers with you.

18Let your fountain be blessed,

And be glad in the wife of your youth.

19As a loving hind and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

Be [†]intoxicated always with her love.

20So why should you, my son, be intoxicated with a strange woman

And embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

21For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yahweh,

And He watches all his tracks.

22His own iniquities will capture him who is the wicked one,

And with the cords of his sin he will be held fast.

23He will die for lack of discipline,

And in the abundance of his [†]folly he will [†]stumble in intoxication.