Admonition to Avoid Seduction to Evil

1My child, be attentive to my wisdom,

pay close attention to my understanding,

2in order to safeguard discretion,

and that your lips may guard knowledge.

3For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,

and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil,

4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

sharp as a two-edged sword.

5Her feet go down to death;

her steps lead straight to the grave.

6Lest she should make level the path leading to life,

her paths are unstable but she does not know it.

7So now, children, listen to me;

do not turn aside from the words I speak.

8Keep yourself far from her,

and do not go near the door of her house,

9lest you give your vigor to others

and your years to a cruel person,

10lest strangers devour your strength,

and your labor benefit another man’s house.

11And at the end of your life you will groan

when your flesh and your body are wasted away.

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

My heart spurned reproof!

13For I did not obey my teachers

and I did not heed my instructors.

14I almost came to complete ruin

in the midst of the whole congregation!”

15Drink water from your own cistern

and running water from your own well.

16Should your springs be dispersed outside,

your streams of water in the wide plazas?

17Let them be for yourself alone,

and not for strangers with you.

18May your fountain be blessed,

and may you rejoice in your young wife –

19a loving doe, a graceful deer;

may her breasts satisfy you at all times,

may you be captivated by her love always.

20But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,

and embrace the bosom of a different woman?

21For the ways of a person are in front of the Lord’s eyes,

and the Lord weighs all that person’s paths.

22The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities,

and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.

23He will die because there was no discipline;

because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.