| King James Bible | Holman Christian Standard Bible |
| 1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: | 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding |
| 2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. | 2so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: | 3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, |
| 4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. | 4in the end she's as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. |
| 6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. | 6She doesn't consider the path of life; she doesn't know that her ways are unstable. |
| 7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. | 7So now, my sons, listen to me, and don't turn away from the words of my mouth. |
| 8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: | 8Keep your way far from her. Don't go near the door of her house. |
| 9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: | 9Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel; |
| 10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; | 10strangers will drain your resources, and your earnings will end up in a foreigner's house. |
| 11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, | 11At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed, |
| 12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; | 12and you will say, "How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction. |
| 13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! | 13I didn't obey my teachers or listen closely to my mentors. |
| 14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. | 14I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community." |
| 15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well. |
| 16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. | 16Should your springs flow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? |
| 17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. | 17They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers. |
| 18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. | 18Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. |
| 19Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love. | 19A loving doe, a graceful fawn-- let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. |
| 20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? | 20Why, my son, would you be infatuated with a forbidden woman or embrace the breast of a stranger? |
| 21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. | 21For a man's ways are before the LORD's eyes, and He considers all his paths. |
| 22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. | 22A wicked man's iniquities entrap him; he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin. |
| 23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. | 23He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity. |
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