A Warning Against Committing Adultery
1My son, pay attention to my wisdom.
Listen carefully to my wise sayings.
2 Then you will continue to have good sense.
Your lips will keep on speaking words of knowledge.
3 A woman who commits adultery has lips that drip honey.
What she says is smoother than olive oil.
4 But in the end she is like bitter poison.
She cuts like a sword that has two edges.
5 Her feet go down to death.
Her steps lead straight to the grave.
6 She doesn’t give any thought to her way of life.
Her paths have no direction, but she doesn’t realize it.
7 My sons, listen to me.
Don’t turn away from what I say.
8 Stay on a path far away from that evil woman.
Don’t even go near the door of her house.
9 If you do, you will lose your honor to other people.
You will give your self-respect to someone who is mean.
10 Strangers will use up all your wealth.
Your hard work will make someone else rich.
11 At the end of your life you will groan.
Your skin and your body will be worn out.
12 You will say, “How I hated to take advice!
How my heart refused to be corrected!
13 I would not obey my teachers.
I wouldn’t listen to those who taught me.
14 I was soon in deep trouble.
It happened right in front of the whole assembly of God’s people.”
15 Drink water from your own well.
Drink running water from your own spring.
16 Should your springs pour out into the streets?
Should your streams of water pour out in public places?
17 No! Let them belong to you alone.
Never share them with strangers.
18 May your fountain be blessed.
May the wife you married when you were young make you happy.
19 She is like a loving doe, a graceful deer.
May her breasts always satisfy you.
May you always be captured by her love.
20 My son, why be captured by another man’s wife?
Why hug a woman who has gone astray?
21 The Lord watches your ways.
He studies all your paths.
22 Sinners are trapped by their own evil acts.
They are held tight by the ropes of their sins.
23 They will die because they refused to be corrected.
Their sins will capture them because they were very foolish.