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5. 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 Or years 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.