5:1 My son, attend unto my wisdom; incline thine ear to my understanding;
5:2 That thou mayest preserve discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
5:3 For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
5:4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on the nether-world;
5:6 Lest she should walk the even path of life, her ways wander, but she knoweth it not.
5:7 Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
5:8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house;
5:9 Lest thou give thy vigour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel;
5:10 Lest strangers be filled with thy strength, and thy labours be in the house of an alien;
5:11 And thou moan, when thine end cometh, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
5:12 And say: 'How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
5:13 Neither have I hearkened to the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
5:14 I was well nigh in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.'
5:15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
5:16 Let thy springs be dispersed abroad, and courses of water in the streets.
5:17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
5:18 Let thy fountain be blessed; and have joy of the wife of thy youth.
5:19 A lovely hind and a graceful doe, let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; with her love be thou ravished always.
5:20 Why then wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of an alien?
5:21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and He maketh even all his paths.
5:22 His own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sin.
5:23 He shall die for lack of instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall reel.