Chapter 5

  My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:  

--

  So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.  

--

  For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;  

--

  But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;  

--

  Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;  

--

  She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.  

--

  Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.  

--

  Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;  

--

  For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:  

--

  And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;  

--

  And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;  

--

  And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;  

--

  I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!  

--

  I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.  

--

  Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.  

--

  Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.  

--

  Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.  

--

  Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.  

--

  As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.  

--

  Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?  

--

  For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.  

--

  The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.  

--

  He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.  

--