18 Let your fountain be blessed,

and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.b

19 A loving deer, a graceful doeA—

let her breasts always satisfy you;c

be lost in her love forever.

20 Why, my son, would you lose yourself

with a forbidden woman

or embrace a wayward woman?d

21 For a man’s ways are before the Lord’s eyes,e

and he considers all his paths.f

22 A wicked man’s iniquities will trap him;g

he will become tangled in the ropes of his own sin.h

23 He will die because there is no discipline,i

and be lost because of his great stupidity.