• Warning Against Adultery

  • 1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, turn your ear to my words of insight,
  • 2 that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
  • 3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
  • 4 but in the end she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
  • 5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
  • 6 She gives no thought to the way of life; her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.
  • 7 Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside from what I say.
  • 8 Keep to a path far from her, do not go near the door of her house,
  • 9 lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel,
  • 10 lest strangers feast on your wealth and your toil enrich the house of another.
  • 11 At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are spent.
  • 12 You will say, “How I hated discipline! How my heart spurned correction!
  • 13 I would not obey my teachers or turn my ear to my instructors.
  • 14 And I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God’s people.”
  • 15 Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
  • 16 Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
  • 17 Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
  • 18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
  • 19 A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
  • 20 Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife? Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?
  • 21 For your ways are in full view of the Lord, and he examines all your paths.
  • 22 The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.
  • 23 For lack of discipline they will die, led astray by their own great folly.