¶ My son, give heed unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my prudence:
that thou mayest regard good counsel, and that thy lips may keep nurture.
For the lips of an harlot are a dropping honeycomb, and her throat is softer than oil.
But at the last she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a two edged sword.
Her feet go down unto death, and her steps pierce thorow unto hell.
She regardeth not the path of life, so unsteadfast are her ways, that thou canst not know them.
Hear me therefore, (O my son) and depart not from the words of my mouth.
Keep thy way far from her, and come not nye the doors of her house.
That thou give not thine honour unto another, and thy years to the cruel.
That other men be not filled with thy goods, and that thy labours come not in a strange house.
Yea that thou mourn not at the last, (when thou hast spent thy body and goods)
and then say: Alas, why hated I nurture? why did my heart despise correction?
Wherefore was not I obedient unto the voice of my teachers, and hearken not unto them that informed me?
I am come almost into all misfortune, in the middest of the multitude and congregation.
¶ Drink of the water of thine own well, and of the rivers that run out of thine own springs.
Let thy wells flow out abroad, that there may be rivers of water in the streets:
but let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
Let thy well be blessed, and be glad with the wife of thy youth.
Loving is the hind, and friendly is the Roo: let her breasts alway satisfy thee, and hold thee ever content with her love.
My son, why wilt thou have pleasure in an harlot, and embrace the bosom of another woman?
For every man's ways are open in the sight of the LORD, and he pondereth all their goings.
The wickedness of the ungodly shall catch himself, and with the snares of his own sins shall he be trapped.
Because he would not be reformed, he shall die: and for his great foolishness he shall be destroyed.
Praise the Everlasting Lord for His Faithful Word.