6 Lest you ponder
her path of life—
Her ways are unstable;
You do not know
them.
7 Therefore hear me now,
my children,
And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove your way far from her,
And do not go near the door of her house,
9 Lest you give your
1 honor to others,
And your years to the cruel
one;
10 Lest aliens be filled with your
1 wealth,
And your labors
go to the house of a foreigner;
11 And you mourn at last,
When your flesh and your body are consumed,
12 And say:
“How I have hated instruction,
And my heart despised correction!
13 I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers,
Nor inclined my ear to those who instructed me!
14 I was on the verge of total ruin,
In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”
15 Drink water from your own cistern,
And running water from your own well.
16 Should your fountains be dispersed abroad,
1Streams of water in the streets?
17 Let them be only your own,
And not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed,
And rejoice with
athe wife of your youth.
19 aAs a loving deer and a graceful doe,
Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;
And always be
1 enraptured with her love.
20 For why should you, my son, be enraptured by
aan immoral woman,
And be embraced in the arms of a seductress?
21 aFor the ways of man
are before the eyes of the
Lord,
And He
1 ponders all his paths.
22 aHis own iniquities entrap the wicked
man,And he is caught in the cords of his sin.
New King James Version®, Copyright© 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved.
