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.