¹⁵ Drink water out of your own cistern, running water out of your own well.

¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares?

¹⁷ Let them be for yourself alone, not for strangers with you.

¹⁸ Let your spring be blessed. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.

¹⁹ A loving doe and a graceful deer-- let her breasts satisfy you at all times. Be captivated always with her love.

²⁰ For why should you, my son, be captivated with an adulteress? Why embrace the bosom of another?

²¹ For the ways of man are before the eyes of Yahweh. He examines all his paths.

²² The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare him. The cords of his sin hold him firmly.

²³ He will die for lack of instruction. In the greatness of his folly, he will go astray.

¹ My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

² You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

³ Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, since you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴ Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵ Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶ Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

⁷ which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

⁸ provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹ How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

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

¹¹ so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

¹² A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

¹³ who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

¹⁴ in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

¹⁵ Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶ There are six things which Yahweh hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

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

¹⁸ a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹ a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰ My son, keep your father's commandment, and don't forsake your mother's teaching.

²¹ Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

²² When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

²³ For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.

²⁵ Don't lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

³⁰ Men don't despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

³¹ but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

³² He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

³³ He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴ For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵ He won't regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

¹ My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.

² Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.

³ Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴ Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,

⁵ that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶ For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.

⁷ I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

⁸ passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,

⁹ in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰ Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.

¹¹ She is loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house.

¹² Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.

¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:

¹⁴ "Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.

¹⁶ I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

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

¹⁸ Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹ For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.

²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."

²¹ With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.

²² He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³ Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life.

²⁴ Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.

²⁵ Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her paths,

²⁶ for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.

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

¹ Doesn't wisdom cry out? Doesn't understanding raise her voice?

² On the top of high places by the way, where the paths meet, she stands.

³ Beside the gates, at the entry of the city, at the entry doors, she cries aloud:

⁴ "To you men, I call! I send my voice to the sons of mankind.

⁵ You simple, understand prudence. You fools, be of an understanding heart.

⁶ Hear, for I will speak excellent things. The opening of my lips is for right things.

⁷ For my mouth speaks truth. Wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

⁸ All the words of my mouth are in righteousness. There is nothing crooked or perverse in them.

⁹ They are all plain to him who understands, right to those who find knowledge.

¹⁰ Receive my instruction rather than silver; knowledge rather than choice gold.

¹¹ For wisdom is better than rubies. All the things that may be desired can't be compared to it.