| English Standard Version | King James Bible |
| 1My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, | 1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: |
| 2that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. | 2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, | 3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: |
| 4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. | 4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. |
| 6she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. | 6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. |
| 7And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. | 7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. |
| 8Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, | 8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: |
| 9lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, | 9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: |
| 10lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, | 10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; |
| 11and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, | 11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, |
| 12and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! | 12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; |
| 13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. | 13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! |
| 14I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” | 14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. | 15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. |
| 16Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? | 16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. |
| 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. | 17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. |
| 18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, | 18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. |
| 19a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. | 19Let 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. |
| 20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? | 20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? |
| 21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. | 21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. |
| 22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. | 22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. |
| 23He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. | 23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. |
| ESV Text Edition: 2016. The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®) copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. The ESV® text has been reproduced in cooperation with and by permission of Good News Publishers. Unauthorized reproduction of this publication is prohibited. All rights reserved. | King James Bible, text courtesy of BibleProtector.com. |
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