7Therefore hear me now, my children,
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8Remove your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
9Lest you give your [e]honor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
10Lest aliens be filled with your [f]wealth,
And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
11And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
12And say:
“How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
13I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
14I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

15Drink water from your own cistern,
And running water from your own well.
16Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
[g]Streams of water in the streets?
17Let them be only your own,
And not for strangers with you.
18Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice with the wife of your youth.
19As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be [h]enraptured with her love.
20For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?

21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,
And He [i]ponders all his paths.
22His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
23He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.