5 My child, pay attention to my wise words,

≈and listen carefully to what I’ve learnt

2 so you won’t lose your discretion,

≈and so your lips might guard knowledge.

3 Although the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey,

≈and her speech is smoother than oil,

4 in the end, she’s as bitter as wormwood,

≈and sharper than a double-sided sword.

5 Her feet are heading down towards death,

≈and her steps will take her to her grave.

6 She doesn’t consider the path of life.

≈Her paths wander so she doesn’t know where she’ll end up.

7 So now my children, listen to me,

≈and don’t deviate from my advice.

8 Stay far away from her,

≈and don’t go near the entrance to her house,

9 in case you end up giving your youthful strength to others,

≈and your best years to a cruel person.

10 Then strangers might make use of your strength (as a slave)

≈and you end up working in a foreigner’s house.

11 Then you’ll groan when you are about to die

≈when your flesh and your body are worn out

12 and you recall, “How I hated discipline,

≈and didn’t like being told what not to do.

13 I didn’t listen to those who were teaching me,

≈and I didn’t take any notice of those who were instructing me.

14 I was so close to utter calamity,

and everyone would have noticed me.

15 Drink water from your own supply[fn]

≈and flowing water from your own well.

16 Should your springs overflow out onto the streets,

≈with streams of water in the plaza?

17 Let them be for you alone,

≈and not for any strangers who are with you.

18 May your fountain be blessed,

and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth—

19 a loving doe, yes, a graceful deer.

Let her breasts satisfy you always.

≈Constantly be overwhelmed by her love.

20 My son, why would you stagger along with a strange woman,

≈or embrace the bosom of a foreign woman

21 because everything a person does is in front of Yahweh’s eyes,

≈and he observes all of your decisions?

22 Wicked people get trapped by their own disobedience,

and they get tangled in their ropes of rebellion.

23 They’ll die from a lack of discipline,

and their own stupidity will lead them astray.