| Holman Christian Standard Bible | NET Bible |
| 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding | 1My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, |
| 2so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. | 2in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge. |
| 3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, | 3For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil, |
| 4in the end she's as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. | 4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. |
| 6She doesn't consider the path of life; she doesn't know that her ways are unstable. | 6Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it. |
| 7So now, my sons, listen to me, and don't turn away from the words of my mouth. | 7So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak. |
| 8Keep your way far from her. Don't go near the door of her house. | 8Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, |
| 9Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel; | 9lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person, |
| 10strangers will drain your resources, and your earnings will end up in a foreigner's house. | 10lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house. |
| 11At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed, | 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, and how my heart despised correction. | 12And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof! |
| 13I didn't obey my teachers or listen closely to my mentors. | 13For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors. |
| 14I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community." | 14I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!" |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. |
| 16Should your springs flow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? | 16Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas? |
| 17They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers. | 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. |
| 18Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. | 18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife-- |
| 19A loving doe, a graceful fawn-- let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. | 19a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always. |
| 20Why, my son, would you be infatuated with a forbidden woman or embrace the breast of a stranger? | 20But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman? |
| 21For a man's ways are before the LORD's eyes, and He considers all his paths. | 21For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD's eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person's paths. |
| 22A wicked man's iniquities entrap him; he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin. | 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 is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity. | 23He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel. |
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