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[1] My son, attend to my wisdom, and apply thine ear to my words;
[2] that thou mayest keep good understanding, and the discretion of my lips gives thee a charge.
[3] for honey drops from the lips of a harlot, who for a season pleases thy palate:
[4] but afterwards thou wilt find her more bitter than gall, and sharper than a two-edged sword.
[5] For the feet of folly lead those who deal with her down to the grave with death; and her steps are not established.
[6] For she goes not upon the paths of life; but her ways are slippery, and not easily known.
[7] Now then, my son, hear me, and make not my words of none effect.
[8] Remove thy way far from her; draw not near to the doors of her house:
[9] lest thou give away thy life to others, and thy substance to the merciless:
[10] lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours come into the houses of strangers;
[11] And thou repent at last, when the flesh of thy body is consumed,
[12] and thou shalt say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart avoided reproofs!
[13] I heard not the voice of him that instructed me, and taught me, neither did I apply mine ear.
[14] I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
[15] Drink waters out of thine own vessels, and out of thine own springing wells.
[16] Let not waters out of thy fountain be spilt by thee, but let thy waters go into thy streets.
[17] Let them be only thine own, and let no stranger partake with thee.
[18] Let thy fountain of water be truly thine own; and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
[19] Let thy loving hart and thy graceful colt company with thee, and let her be considered thine own, and be with thee at all times; for ravished with her love thou shalt be greatly increased.
[20] Be not intimate with a strange woman, neither fold thyself in the arms of a woman not thine own.
[21] For the ways of a man are before the eyes of God, and he looks on all his paths.
[22] Iniquities ensnare a man, and every one is bound in the chains of his own sins.
[23] Such a man dies with the uninstructed; and he is cast forth from the abundance of his own substance, and has perished through folly.
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