| International Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen closely to my insight, | 1My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, |
| 2so you may carefully practice discretion and your lips preserve knowledge. | 2in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. | 3For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive 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 lead straight to the grave. |
| 6You aren't thinking about where her life is headed; her steps wander, but you do not realize it. | 6Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it. |
| 7Now, children, listen to me. Don't turn away from what I am saying. | 7So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak. |
| 8Keep far away from her, and don't go near the entrance to her house, | 8Keep yourself 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 vigor to others and your years to a cruel person, |
| 10so that strangers don't enrich themselves at your expense, and your work won't end up the possession of foreigners. | 10lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house. |
| 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 will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away. |
| 12and you will say, "How I hated instruction, and my heart rejected correction! | 12And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof! |
| 13I did not obey my teachers and did not listen to my instructors. | 13For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors. |
| 14Now I am at the point of utter disaster in the assembly and in the congregation." | 14I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!" |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. |
| 16Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street? | 16Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas? |
| 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. | 18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife-- |
| 19Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love. | 19a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always. |
| 20Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? | 20But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman? |
| 21Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD's presence, and he weighs 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. |
| 22The wicked person's iniquities will capture him, and he will be held with the cords of his 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 for lack of discipline, and he goes astray because of his great folly. | 23He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel. |
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