Proverbs

Listen carefully* to my discernment,+

 2 So that you may guard your thinking abilities

And safeguard knowledge with your lips.+

 3 For the lips of a wayward* woman drip like a honeycomb,+

And her mouth is smoother than oil.+

 4 But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood+

And as sharp as a two-edged sword.+

 7 Now, my sons, listen to me

And do not turn away from what I am saying.

 8 Stay far away from her;

Do not go near the entrance of her house,+

 9 So that you may not give your dignity to others+

Nor reap years of what is cruel;+

10 So that strangers may not drain your resources*+

And what you labored for go to the house of a foreigner.

11 Otherwise, you will groan at the end of your life

When your flesh and body waste away+

12 And you say: “How I hated discipline!

13 I did not listen to the voice of my instructors

Or pay attention to my teachers.

14 I have come to the brink of complete ruin

In the midst of the entire congregation.”*+

15 Drink water from your own cistern

And flowing* water from your own well.+

16 Should your springs be dispersed outside,

Your streams of water in the public squares?+

17 Let them be for you alone,

And not for strangers with you.+

18 May your own fountain* be blessed,

And may you rejoice with the wife of your youth,+

19 A loving doe, a graceful mountain goat.*+

20 So why, my son, should you be captivated by a wayward* woman

Or embrace the bosom of an immoral* woman?+

21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of Jehovah;

He examines all his paths.+

22 The wicked one is ensnared by his own errors,

And he will be caught in the ropes of his own sin.+

23 He will die for lack of discipline

And go astray because of his excessive foolishness.