¹My son, pay attention to my wisdom;

Incline your ear to my understanding,

²In observing thoughtfulness,

So that your lips are in keeping with knowledge.

³For the lips of a stranger-woman will drip honey,

And the savour of her is smoother than oil.

⁴But her end is as bitter as wormwood

And as sharp as a two-edged sword.

⁵Her feet descend to death;

Her steps conduct her to the grave.

⁶Beware of even considering her way of life;

Her ways are changeable in a way you cannot predict.

⁷So now, my sons, hear me,

And do not depart from the sayings I have uttered.

⁸Keep your ways well clear of her,

And do not approach the door of her house

⁹In case you give your high standing to others

And your years to the cruel one

¹⁰– In case strangers satiate themselves with your wealth,

And your hard work goes to a foreigner's house,

¹¹And in your last days you groan,

As your flesh and your body are consumed,

¹²And you say,

“How I have hated correction,

And how my heart has despised reproof.

¹³And I have not heeded the appeal of my teachers,

And I have not inclined my ear to my instructors.

¹⁴I soon came into all kinds of trouble

In the midst of the convocation and the congregation.”

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern,

And liquid from your own well.

¹⁶Your water-sources could spread outside

– Streams of water in the open areas –

¹⁷But let them be for you alone,

And not for the strangers who are with you.

¹⁸May your water-source be blessed,

And rejoice in the wife of your youth

¹⁹– The lovable hind

Or the graceful wild she-goat,

Whose breasts will delight you at all times,

In whose love you will always indulge yourself.

²⁰So why, my son, should you indulge yourself in a stranger-woman

And embrace a foreign lady's bosom?

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

And he weighs up all of a man's paths.

²²The iniquities of the wicked man will catch him,

And he will be caught up in the strands of his sin.

²³He will die not having accepted instruction,

And he will go astray in the great extent of his foolishness.