1 My son, perceive thou my wisdom, and bow down thine ear to my prudence;

2 that thou keep thy thoughts, and thy lips keep teaching.

3 Give thou not attention to the falseness of a woman; for the lips of an whore be an honeycomb dropping, and her throat is clearer than oil;

4 but the last things [of her]be bitter as wormwood, and her tongue is sharp as a sword carving, or cutting, on each side.

5 Her feet go down into death; and her steps pierce to hells [or to hell].

6 Those [or they] go not by the path of life; her steps be uncertain, and may not be sought out.

7 Now therefore, my son, hear thou me, and go thou not away from the words of my mouth.

8 Make far thy way from her, and nigh thou not to the doors of her house.

9 Give thou not thine honour to aliens, and thy years to the cruel;

10 lest peradventure strangers be filled with thy strengths, and lest thy travails be in an alien’s house;

11 and thou bewail in the last days, when thou hast wasted thy flesh, and thy body;

12 and say, Why loathed I teaching, and mine heart assented not to blamings;

13 neither I heard the voice of men teaching me, and I bowed not down mine ear to masters?

14 Almost I was in all-evil, in the midst of the church, and of the synagogue.

15 Drink thou water of thy cistern, and the floods of thy well.

16 Thy wells be streamed forth; and part thy waters in streets.

17 Have thou alone them [or them alone]; and aliens be not thy partners.

18 Thy vein be blessed; and be thou glad with the woman of thy young waxing age.

19 An hind most dearworthy; and an hart calf most acceptable. Her teats fill thee in all time; and delight thou continually in the love of her.

20 My son, why art thou deceived of an alien woman; and art fostered in the bosom of another?

21 The Lord seeth the ways of a man; and he beholdeth all his steps.

22 The wickednesses of a wicked man take him; and he is bound with the ropes of his sins.

23 He shall die, for he had not learning, and he shall be deceived in the muchliness of his folly.