1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: 2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 ¶ For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: 4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. 6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them . 7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. 8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: 9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: 10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; 11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, 12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; 13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 ¶ Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. 16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. 17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers’ with thee. 18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. 19 Let 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. 20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? 21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 ¶ His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. 23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
1 fili mi adtende sapientiam meam
et prudentiae meae inclina aurem tuam
2 ut custodias cogitationes et disciplinam labia tua conservent
3 favus enim stillans labia meretricis
et nitidius oleo guttur eius
4 novissima autem illius amara quasi absinthium
et acuta quasi gladius biceps
5 pedes eius descendunt in mortem
et ad inferos gressus illius penetrant
6 per semitam vitae non ambulat
vagi sunt gressus eius et investigabiles
7 nunc ergo fili audi me et ne recedas a verbis oris mei
8 longe fac ab ea viam tuam
et ne adpropinques foribus domus eius
9 ne des alienis honorem tuum et annos tuos crudeli
10 ne forte impleantur extranei viribus tuis
et labores tui sint in domo aliena
11 et gemas in novissimis
quando consumpseris carnes et corpus tuum
et dicas
12 cur detestatus sum disciplinam
et increpationibus non adquievit cor meum
13 nec audivi vocem docentium me
et magistris non inclinavi aurem meam
14 paene fui in omni malo in medio ecclesiae et synagogae
15 bibe aquam de cisterna tua et fluenta putei tui
16 deriventur fontes tui foras et in plateis aquas tuas divide
17 habeto eas solus nec sint alieni participes tui
18 sit vena tua benedicta et laetare cum muliere adulescentiae tuae
19 cerva carissima et gratissimus hinulus
ubera eius inebrient te omni tempore
in amore illius delectare iugiter
20 quare seduceris fili mi ab aliena et foveris sinu alterius
21 respicit Dominus vias hominis
et omnes gressus illius considerat
22 iniquitates suae capiunt impium
et funibus peccatorum suorum constringitur
23 ipse morietur quia non habuit disciplinam
et multitudine stultitiae suae decipietur