5:1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom, pay close attention to my understanding,
5:2 in order to safeguard discretion, and that your lips may guard knowledge.
5:3 For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her seductive words are smoother than oil,
5:4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5:5 Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to the grave.
5:6 Lest she should make level the path leading to life, her paths are unstable but she does not know it.
5:7 So now, children, listen to me; do not turn aside from the words I speak.
5:8 Keep yourself far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,
5:9 lest you give your vigor to others and your years to a cruel person,
5:10 lest strangers devour your strength, and your labor benefit another man’s house.
5:11 And at the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are wasted away.
5:12 And you will say, “How I hated discipline! My heart spurned reproof!
5:13 For I did not obey my teachers and I did not heed my instructors.
5:14 I almost came to complete ruin in the midst of the whole congregation!”
5:15 Drink water from your own cistern and running water from your own well.
5:16 Should your springs be dispersed outside, your streams of water in the wide plazas?
5:17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for strangers with you.
5:18 May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in your young wife —
5:19 a loving doe, a graceful deer; may her breasts satisfy you at all times, may you be captivated by her love always.