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; he 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.