Warning against adultery

5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom,
    turn your ear to my words of insight,
² that you may maintain discretion
    and your lips may preserve knowledge.
³ For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey,
    and her speech is smoother than oil;
⁴ but in the end she is bitter as gall,
    sharp as a double-edged sword.
⁵ Her feet go down to death;
    her steps lead straight to the grave.
⁶ She gives no thought to the way of life;
    her paths wander aimlessly, but she does not know it.

⁷ Now then, my sons, listen to me;
    do not turn aside from what I say.
⁸ Keep to a path far from her,
    do not go near the door of her house,
⁹ lest you lose your honour to others
    and your dignity to one who is cruel,
¹⁰ lest strangers feast on your wealth
    and your toil enrich the house of another.
¹¹ At the end of your life you will groan,
    when your flesh and body are spent.
¹² You will say, ‘How I hated discipline!
    How my heart spurned correction!
¹³ I would not obey my teachers
    or turn my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴ And I was soon in serious trouble
    in the assembly of God’s people.’

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
    running water from your own well.
¹⁶ Should your springs overflow in the streets,
    your streams of water in the public squares?
¹⁷ Let them be yours alone,
    never to be shared with strangers.
¹⁸ May your fountain be blessed,
    and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
¹⁹ A loving doe, a graceful deer –
    may her breasts satisfy you always,
    may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
²⁰ Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
    Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?

²¹ For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
    and he examines all your paths.
²² The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them;
    the cords of their sins hold them fast.
²³ For lack of discipline they will die,
    led astray by their own great folly.