5:1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom,
pay close attention to my understanding,
5:2 in order to safeguard discretion,
and that your lips may guard knowledge.
5:3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil,
5:4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
5:5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps lead straight to the grave.
5:6 Lest she should make level the path leading to life,
her paths are unstable but she does not know it.
5:7 So now, children, listen to me;
do not turn aside from the words I speak.
5:8 Keep yourself far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
5:9 lest you give your vigor to others
and your years to a cruel person,
5:10 lest strangers devour your strength,
and your labor benefit another man’s house.
5:11 And at the end of your life you will groan
when your flesh and your body are wasted away.
5:12 And you will say, “How I hated discipline!
My heart spurned reproof!
5:13 For I did not obey my teachers
and I did not heed my instructors.
5:14 I almost came to complete ruin
in the midst of the whole congregation!”
5:15 Drink water from your own cistern
and running water from your own well.
5:16 Should your springs be dispersed outside,
your streams of water in the wide plazas?
5:17 Let them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
5:18 May your fountain be blessed,
and may you rejoice in your young wife –
5:19 a loving doe, a graceful deer;
may her breasts satisfy you at all times,
may you be captivated by her love always.
5:20 But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,
and embrace the bosom of a different woman?
5:21 For the ways of a person are in front of the Lord’s eyes,
and the Lord weighs all that person’s paths.
5:22 The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities,
and he will be held by the cords of his own sin.
5:23 He will die because there was no discipline;
because of the greatness of his folly he will reel.
6:1 My child, if you have made a pledge for your neighbor,
and have become a guarantor for a stranger,
6:2 if you have been ensnared by the words you have uttered,
and have been caught by the words you have spoken,
6:3 then, my child, do this in order to deliver yourself,
because you have fallen into your neighbor’s power:
go, humble yourself,
and appeal firmly to your neighbor.
6:4 Permit no sleep to your eyes
or slumber to your eyelids.
6:5 Deliver yourself like a gazelle from a snare,
and like a bird from the trap of the fowler.
6:6 Go to the ant, you sluggard;
observe its ways and be wise!
6:7 It has no commander,
overseer, or ruler,
6:8 yet it prepares its food in the summer;
it gathers at the harvest what it will eat.
6:9 How long, you sluggard, will you lie there?
When will you rise from your sleep?
6:10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
a little folding of the hands to relax,
6:11 and your poverty will come like a robber,
and your need like an armed man.
6:12 A worthless and wicked person
walks around saying perverse things;
6:13 he winks with his eyes,
signals with his feet,
and points with his fingers;
6:14 he plots evil with perverse thoughts in his heart,
he spreads contention at all times.
6:15 Therefore, his disaster will come suddenly;
in an instant he will be broken, and there will be no remedy.
6:16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
even seven things that are an abomination to him:
6:17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
and hands that shed innocent blood,
6:18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
feet that are swift to run to evil,
6:19 a false witness who pours out lies,
and a person who spreads discord among family members.
6:20 My child, guard the commands of your father
and do not forsake the instruction of your mother.
6:21 Bind them on your heart continually;
fasten them around your neck.
6:22 When you walk about, they will guide you;
when you lie down, they will watch over you;
when you wake up, they will talk to you.
6:23 For the commandments are like a lamp,
instruction is like a light,
and rebukes of discipline are like the road leading to life,
6:24 by keeping you from the evil woman,
from the smooth tongue of the loose woman.
6:25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty,
and do not let her captivate you with her alluring eyes;
6:26 for on account of a prostitute one is brought down to a loaf of bread,
but the wife of another man preys on your precious life.
6:27 Can a man hold fire against his chest
without burning his clothes?
6:28 Can a man walk on hot coals
without scorching his feet?
6:29 So it is with the one who has sex with his neighbor’s wife;
no one who touches her will escape punishment.
6:30 People do not despise a thief when he steals
to fulfill his need when he is hungry.
6:31 Yet if he is caught he must repay seven times over,
he might even have to give all the wealth of his house.
6:32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom,
whoever does it destroys his own life.
6:33 He will be beaten and despised,
and his reproach will not be wiped away;
6:34 for jealousy kindles a husband’s rage,
and he will not show mercy when he takes revenge.
6:35 He will not consider any compensation;
he will not be willing, even if you multiply the compensation.
7:1 My child, keep my words
and treasure up my commands in your own keeping.
7:2 Keep my commands so that you may live,
and obey my instruction as your most prized possession.
7:3 Bind them on your forearm;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
7:4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call understanding a close relative,
7:5 so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the loose woman who flatters you with her words.
7:6 For at the window of my house
through my window lattice I looked out
7:7 and I saw among the naive –
I discerned among the youths –
a young man who lacked wisdom.
7:8 He was passing by the street near her corner,
making his way along the road to her house
7:9 in the twilight, the evening,
in the dark of the night.
7:10 Suddenly a woman came out to meet him!
She was dressed like a prostitute and with secret intent.
7:11 (She is loud and rebellious,
she does not remain at home –
7:12 at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas,
and by every corner she lies in wait.)
7:13 So she grabbed him and kissed him,
and with a bold expression she said to him,
7:14 “I have fresh meat at home;
today I have fulfilled my vows!
7:15 That is why I came out to meet you,
to look for you, and I found you!
7:16 I have spread my bed with elegant coverings,
with richly colored fabric from Egypt.
7:17 I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
7:18 Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning,
let’s delight ourselves with sexual intercourse.
7:19 For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a journey of some distance.
7:20 He has taken a bag of money with him;
he will not return until the end of the month.”
7:21 She persuaded him with persuasive words;
with her smooth talk she compelled him.
7:22 Suddenly he went after her
like an ox that goes to the slaughter,
like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare
7:23 till an arrow pierces his liver –
like a bird hurrying into a trap,
and he does not know that it will cost him his life.
7:24 So now, sons, listen to me,
and pay attention to the words I speak.
7:25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways –
do not wander into her pathways;
7:26 for she has brought down many fatally wounded,
and all those she has slain are many.
7:27 Her house is the way to the grave,
going down to the chambers of death.