Chapter 5

My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:

So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.

For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;

But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;

Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;

She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.

Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.

Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;

For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:

And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;

And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;

And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;

I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!

I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.

Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.

Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.

Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.

Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.

As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.

Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?

For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.

The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.

He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.