• 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.
  • 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.