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Avoiding Immorality

Verse1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,

Verse2that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.

Verse3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,

Verse4in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.

Verse5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.

Verse6She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.

Verse7So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.

Verse8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,

Verse9lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;

Verse10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.

Verse11At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,

Verse12and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!

Verse13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.

Verse14I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”

Verse15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.

Verse16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?

Verse17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.

Verse18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:

Verse19A loving doe, a graceful fawn— may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.

Verse20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?

Verse21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.

Verse22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.

Verse23He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.