My son,
attend
unto my wisdom,
and bow
thine ear
to my understanding:
That thou mayest regard
discretion,
and that thy lips
may keep
knowledge.
For the lips
of a strange woman
drop
as an honeycomb,
and her mouth
is smoother
than oil:
But her end
is bitter
as wormwood,
sharp
as a twoedged
sword.
Her feet
go down
to death;
her steps
take hold
on hell.
Lest thou shouldest ponder
the path
of life,
her ways
are moveable,
that thou canst not know
them.
Hear
me now therefore, O ye children,
and depart
not from the words
of my mouth.
Remove
thy way
far
from her, and come not nigh
the door
of her house:
Lest thou give
thine honour
unto others,
and thy years
unto the cruel:
Lest strangers
be filled
with thy wealth;
and thy labours
be in the house
of a stranger;
And thou mourn
at the last,
when thy flesh
and thy body
are consumed,
And say,
How have I hated
instruction,
and my heart
despised
reproof;
And have not obeyed
the voice
of my teachers,
nor inclined
mine ear
to them that instructed
me!
I was almost
in all evil
in the midst
of the congregation
and assembly.
Drink
waters
out of thine own cistern,
and running waters
out of
thine own well.
Let thy fountains
be dispersed
abroad,
and rivers
of waters
in the streets.
Let them be only thine own, and not strangers'
with thee.
Let thy fountain
be blessed:
and rejoice
with the wife
of thy youth.
Let her be as the loving
hind
and pleasant
roe;
let her breasts
satisfy
thee at all times;
and be thou ravished
always
with her love.
deer
ἔλαφος
elaphos
carry round along with
συμπεριφερόμενος
symperipheromenos
one of many
πολλοστὸς
pollostos
And why wilt thou, my son,
be ravished
with a strange woman,
and embrace
the bosom
of a stranger?
For the ways
of man
are before
the eyes
of the LORD,
and he pondereth
all his goings.
His own iniquities
shall take
the wicked
himself, and he shall be holden
with the cords
of his sins.
He shall die
without instruction;
and in the greatness
of his folly
he shall go astray.
