| English Standard Version | NET Bible |
| 1My son, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding, | 1My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding, |
| 2that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge. | 2in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil, | 3For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than olive oil, |
| 4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. | 4but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol; | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave. |
| 6she does not ponder the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it. | 6Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it. |
| 7And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth. | 7So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak. |
| 8Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, | 8Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house, |
| 9lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, | 9lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person, |
| 10lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner, | 10lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man's house. |
| 11and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed, | 11And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away. |
| 12and you say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! | 12And you will say, "How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof! |
| 13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors. | 13For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors. |
| 14I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation.” | 14I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!" |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well. |
| 16Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? | 16Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas? |
| 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. | 17Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you. |
| 18Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, | 18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife-- |
| 19a lovely deer, a graceful doe. Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight; be intoxicated always in her love. | 19a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always. |
| 20Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? | 20But why should you be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, and embrace the bosom of a different woman? |
| 21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and he ponders all his paths. | 21For the ways of a person are in front of the LORD's eyes, and the LORD weighs all that person's paths. |
| 22The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the cords of his sin. | 22The wicked will be captured by his own iniquities, and he will be held by the cords of his own sin. |
| 23He dies for lack of discipline, and because of his great folly he is led astray. | 23He will die because there was no discipline; because of the greatness of his folly he will reel. |
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