| King James Bible | Berean Study Bible |
| 1My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding: | 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight, |
| 2That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge. | 2that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge. |
| 3For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: | 3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, |
| 4But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. | 4in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. |
| 6Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them. | 6She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable. |
| 7Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth. | 7So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth. |
| 8Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house: | 8Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house, |
| 9Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel: | 9lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel; |
| 10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger; | 10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner. |
| 11And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed, | 11At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent, |
| 12And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof; | 12and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof! |
| 13And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me! | 13I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors. |
| 14I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly. | 14I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.” |
| 15Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well. |
| 16Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets. | 16Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? |
| 17Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee. | 17Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. |
| 18Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth. | 18May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth: |
| 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. | 19A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever. |
| 20And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger? | 20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger? |
| 21For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings. | 21For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths. |
| 22His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. | 22The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him. |
| 23He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray. | 23He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly. |
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