The Peril of Adultery

5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;

1Lend your ear to my understanding,

2 That you may 2preserve discretion,

And your lips amay keep knowledge.

3 bFor the lips of 3an immoral woman drip honey,

And her mouth is csmoother than oil;

4 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two-edged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death,

dHer steps lay hold of 4hell.

6 Lest you ponder her path of life—

Her ways are unstable;

You do not know them.

7 Therefore hear me now, my children,

And do not depart from the words of my mouth.

8 Remove your way far from her,

And do not go near the door of her house,

9 Lest you give your 5honor to others,

And your years to the cruel one;

10 Lest aliens be filled with your 6wealth,

And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;

11 And you mourn at last,

When your flesh and your body are consumed,

12 And say:

“How I have hated instruction,

And my heart despised correction!

13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,

Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!

14 I was on the verge of total ruin,

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern,

And running water from your own well.

16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,

7Streams of water in the streets?

17 Let them be only your own,

And not for strangers with you.

18 Let your fountain be blessed,

And rejoice with ethe wife of your youth.

19 fAs a loving deer and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

And always be 8enraptured with her love.

20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by gan immoral woman,

And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?

21 hFor the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord,

And He 9ponders all his paths.

22 iHis own iniquities entrap the wicked man,

And he is caught in the cords of his sin.

23 jHe shall die for lack of instruction,

And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.