Warning Against Adultery

¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom,

Incline your ear to my discernment;

²That you may keep discretion

And that your lips may guard knowledge.

³For the lips of a strange woman drip honey

And smoother than oil is her speech;

⁴But her end is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet go down to death,

Her steps take hold of Sheol,

⁶Lest she watch the path of life;

Her tracks are unstable, she does not know it .

⁷¶So now, my sons, listen to me

And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

⁸Keep your way far from her

And do not go near the door of her house,

⁹Lest you give your splendor to others

And your years to the cruel one;

¹⁰Lest strangers be satisfied by your strength

And by your painful labor, those in the house of a foreigner;

¹¹And you groan at your end,[#5:11 Or latter]

When your flesh and your body are consumed;

¹²And you say, “How I have hated discipline!

And my heart spurned reproof!

¹³“I have not listened to the voice of my instructors,

And I have not inclined my ear to my teachers!

¹⁴“I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

¹⁵¶Drink water from your own cistern

And fresh water from your own well.

¹⁶Should your springs be dispersed abroad,

Streams of water in the streets?

¹⁷Let them be for you alone,

And not for strangers with you.

¹⁸Let your fountain be blessed,

And be glad in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹As a loving hind and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

Be intoxicated always with her love.

²⁰So why should you, my son, be intoxicated with a strange woman

And embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

²¹For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yahweh,

And He watches all his tracks.

²²His own iniquities will capture him who is the wicked one,

And with the cords of his sin he will be held fast.

²³He will die for lack of discipline,

And in the abundance of his folly he will stumble in intoxication.