5:1 My son, be attentive to my wisdom;
 incline your ear to my understanding,
2 that you may keep discretion,
 and your lips may guard knowledge.
3 For the lips of a forbidden [1] woman drip honey,
 and her speech [2] is smoother than oil,
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
 sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death;
 her steps follow the path to [3] Sheol;
6 she does not ponder the path of life;
 her ways wander, and she does not know it.

7 And now, O sons, listen to me,
 and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Keep your way far from her,
 and do not go near the door of her house,
9 lest you give your honor to others
 and your years to the merciless,
10 lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
 and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11 and at the end of your life you groan,
 when your flesh and body are consumed,
12 and you say, “How I hated discipline,
 and my heart despised reproof!
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
 or incline my ear to my instructors.
14 I am at the brink of utter ruin
 in the assembled congregation.”

15 Drink water from your own cistern,
 flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad,
 streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be for yourself alone,
 and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
 and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
 19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts fill you at all times with delight;
 be intoxicated [4] always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with a forbidden woman
 and embrace the bosom of an adulteress? [5]
21 For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the Lord,
 and he ponders [6] all his paths.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare him,
 and he is held fast in the cords of his sin.
23 He dies for lack of discipline,
 and because of his great folly he is led astray.

6:1 My son, if you have put up security for your neighbor,
 have given your pledge for a stranger,
2 if you are snared in the words of your mouth,
 caught in the words of your mouth,
3 then do this, my son, and save yourself,
 for you have come into the hand of your neighbor:
 go, hasten, [7] and plead urgently with your neighbor.
4 Give your eyes no sleep
 and your eyelids no slumber;
5 save yourself like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, [8]
 like a bird from the hand of the fowler.

6 Go to the ant, O sluggard;
 consider her ways, and be wise.
7 Without having any chief,
 officer, or ruler,
8 she prepares her bread in summer
 and gathers her food in harvest.
9 How long will you lie there, O sluggard?
 When will you arise from your sleep?
10 A little sleep, a little slumber,
 a little folding of the hands to rest,
11 and poverty will come upon you like a robber,
 and want like an armed man.

12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
 goes about with crooked speech,
13 winks with his eyes, signals [9] with his feet,
 points with his finger,
14 with perverted heart devises evil,
 continually sowing discord;
15 therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly;
 in a moment he will be broken beyond healing.

16 There are six things that the Lord hates,
 seven that are an abomination to him:
17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue,
 and hands that shed innocent blood,
18 a heart that devises wicked plans,
 feet that make haste to run to evil,
19 a false witness who breathes out lies,
 and one who sows discord among brothers.

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment,
 and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
21 Bind them on your heart always;
 tie them around your neck.
22 When you walk, they [10] will lead you;
 when you lie down, they will watch over you;
 and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
 and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 to preserve you from the evil woman, [11]
 from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. [12]
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
 and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, [13]
 but a married woman [14] hunts down a precious life.
27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest
 and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk on hot coals
 and his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
 none who touches her will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
 to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
31 but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
 he will give all the goods of his house.
32 He who commits adultery lacks sense;
 he who does it destroys himself.
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
 and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For jealousy makes a man furious,
 and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
35 He will accept no compensation;
 he will refuse though you multiply gifts.