An exhortation to fly unlawful lust, and the occasions of it.
[1] My son, attend to my wisdom, and incline thy ear to my prudence.
[2] That thou mayst keep thoughts, and thy lips may preserve instruction. Mind not the deceit of a woman.
[3] For the lips of a harlot are like a honeycomb dropping, and her throat is smoother than oil.
[4] But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword.
[5] Her feet go down into death, and her steps go in as far as hell.
[6] They walk not by the path of life, her steps are wandering, and unaccountable.
[7] Now therefore, my son, hear me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
[8] Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the doors of her house.
[9] Give not thy honour to strangers, and thy years to the cruel.
[10] Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in another man's house,
[11] And thou mourn it the last, when thou shalt have spent thy flesh and thy body, and say:
[12] Why have I hated instruction, and my heart consented not to reproof,
[13] And have not heard the voice of them that taught me, and have not inclined my ear to masters?
[14] I have almost been in all evil, in the midst of the church and of the congregation.
[15] Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well:
[16] Let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.
[17] Keep them to thyself alone, neither let strangers be partakers with thee.
[18] Let thy vein be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy youth:
[19] Let her be thy dearest hind, and most agreeable fawn: let her breasts inebriate thee at all times; be thou delighted continually with her love.
[20] Why art thou seduced, my son, by a strange woman, and art cherished in the bosom of another?
[21] The Lord beholdeth the ways of man, and considereth all his steps.
[22] His own iniquities catch the wicked, and he is fast bound with the ropes of his own sins.
[23] He shall die, because he hath not received instruction, and in the multitude of his folly he shall be deceived.
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