The Peril of Adultery

¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
Lend your ear to my understanding,
² That you may preserve discretion,
And your lips may keep knowledge.
³ For the lips of an immoral woman drip honey,
And her mouth is smoother than oil;
⁴ But in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
Sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death,
Her steps lay hold of hell.^[a]
6 Lest you ponder her path of life—
Her ways are unstable;
You do not know them.
⁷ Therefore hear me now, my children,
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸ Remove your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
⁹ Lest you give your honor to others,
And your years to the cruel one;
¹⁰ Lest aliens be filled with your wealth,
And your labors go to the house of a foreigner;
¹¹ And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
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,
Streams 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 the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ As a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be enraptured with her love.
²⁰ For why should you, my son, be enraptured by an immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD,
And He ponders all his paths.
²² His own iniquities entrap the wicked man,
And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
²³ He shall die for lack of instruction,
And in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.