| International Standard Version | English Standard Version |
| 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen closely to my insight, | 1My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, |
| 2so you may carefully practice discretion and your lips preserve knowledge. | 2that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. | 3For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, |
| 4But in the end she is 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 lead to Sheol. | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; |
| 6You aren't thinking about where her life is headed; her steps wander, but you do not realize it. | 6she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. |
| 7Now, children, listen to me. Don't turn away from what I am saying. | 7And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. |
| 8Keep far away from her, and don't go near the entrance to her house, | 8Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, |
| 9so that you don't give your honor to others, and waste your best years; | 9lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, |
| 10so that strangers don't enrich themselves at your expense, and your work won't end up the possession of foreigners. | 10lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, |
| 11You will cry out in anguish when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, | 11and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, |
| 12and you will say, "How I hated instruction, and my heart rejected correction! | 12and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! |
| 13I did not obey my teachers and did not listen to my instructors. | 13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. |
| 14Now I am at the point of utter disaster in the assembly and in the congregation." | 14I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. |
| 16Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street? | 16Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? |
| 17They should be for you alone and not for strangers who are with you. | 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. |
| 18Let your fountain be blessed and enjoy the wife of your youth. | 18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, |
| 19Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love. | 19a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. |
| 20Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? | 20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? |
| 21Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD's presence, and he weighs all his paths. | 21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. |
| 22The wicked person's iniquities will capture him, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. | 22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. |
| 23He will die for lack of discipline, and he goes astray because of his great folly. | 23He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. |
The Holy Bible: International Standard Version® Release 2.1 Copyright © 1996-2012 The ISV Foundation
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED INTERNATIONALLY. | ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. |
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