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My son, attend unto my wisdom, incline thine ear to my understanding;

that thou mayest keep reflection, and that thy lips may preserve knowledge.

For the lips of the strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

but her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on Sheol.

Lest she should ponder the path of life, her ways wander, she knoweth not [whither].

And now, children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;

10 lest strangers be filled with thy wealth, and the fruits of thy toil [come] into the house of a stranger;

11 and thou mourn in thine end, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed;

12 and thou say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof!

13 and I have not hearkened unto the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to those that instructed me;

14 I was well nigh 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 Thy fountains shall be poured forth, as water-brooks in the broadways.

17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

18 Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.

19 As a lovely hind and a graceful roe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times: be thou ravished continually with her love.

20 And why shouldest 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 Jehovah, and he pondereth all his paths.

22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.

23 He shall die for want of discipline; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.

My son, if thou hast become surety for thy friend, if thou hast stricken thy hand for a stranger,

thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.

Do this now, my son, and deliver thyself, since thou hast come into the hand of thy friend: go, humble thyself, and be urgent with thy friend.

Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids:

deliver thyself as a gazelle from the hand [of the hunter], and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.

Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways and be wise:

which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

provideth her bread in the summer, [and] gathereth her food in the harvest.

How long, sluggard, wilt thou lie down? When wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?

10 A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest!

11 So shall thy poverty come as a roving plunderer, and thy penury as an armed man.

12 A man of Belial, a wicked person, is he that goeth about with a perverse mouth;

13 he winketh with his eyes, he speaketh with his feet, he teacheth with his fingers;

14 deceits are in his heart; he deviseth mischief at all times, he soweth discords.

15 Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly: in a moment shall he be broken, and without remedy.

16 These six [things] doth Jehovah hate, yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood;

18 a heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that are swift in running to mischief;

19 a false witness that uttereth lies, and he that soweth discords among brethren.

20 My son, observe thy father's commandment, and forsake not the teaching of thy mother;

21 bind them continually upon thy heart, tie them about thy neck:

22 when thou walkest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and [when] thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

23 For the commandment is a lamp, and the teaching a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

24 to keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

25 Lust not after her beauty in thy heart, neither let her take thee with her eyelids;

26 for by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a loaf of bread, and another's wife doth hunt for the precious soul.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned?

28 Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

29 So he that goeth in to his neighbour's wife: whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

30 They do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry:

31 and if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

32 Whoso committeth adultery with a woman is void of understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

33 A wound and contempt shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

34 For jealousy is the rage of a man, and he will not spare in the day of vengeance;

35 he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content though thou multipliest [thy] gifts.

My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Keep my commandments, and live; and my teaching, as the apple of thine eye.

Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the tablet of thy heart.

Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister, and call intelligence [thy] kinswoman:

that they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger who flattereth with her words.

For at the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice,

and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the sons, a young man void of understanding,

passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.

10 And behold, there met him a woman in the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.

11 She is clamorous and unmanageable; her feet abide not in her house:

12 now without, now in the broadways,—and she lieth in wait at every corner.

13 And she caught him and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

14 I have peace-offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows:

15 therefore came I forth to meet thee, to seek earnestly thy face, and I have found thee.

16 I have decked my bed with tapestry coverlets of variegated linen from Egypt;

17 I have perfumed my couch with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us revel in love until the morning, let us delight ourselves with loves.

19 For the husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey;

20 he hath taken the money-bag with him, he will come home on the day of the full moon.

21 With her much enticement she beguiled him; with the smoothness of her lips she constrained him.

22 He went after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as stocks [serve] for the correction of the fool;

23 till an arrow strike through his liver: as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for its life.

24 And now, ye sons, hearken unto me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not thy heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths:

26 for she hath cast down many wounded, and all slain by her were strong.

27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.

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