Study Desk

My son, pay attention to my wisdom, Incline your ear to my understanding,

My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:

So that you may maintain discretion And your lips may comply with knowledge.

That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.

For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, And her speech is smoother than oil;

For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.

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

Her feet go down to death, Her steps take hold of Sheol.

Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

She does not ponder the path of life; Her ways are unstable, she does not know it.

Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.

Now then, my sons, listen to me And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house,

Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:

Otherwise you will give your vigor to others, And your years to the cruel one;

Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:

And strangers will be filled with your strength, And your hard-earned possessions will go to the house of a foreigner;

Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;

And you will groan in the end, When your flesh and your body are consumed;

And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,

And you say, "How I hated instruction! And my heart disdainfully rejected rebuke!

And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;

"I did not listen to the voice of my teachers, Nor incline my ear to my instructors!

And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!

"I was almost in total ruin In the midst of the assembly and congregation."

I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.

Drink water from your own cistern, And fresh water from your own well.

Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.

Should your springs overflow into the street, Streams of water in the public squares?

Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.

Let them be yours alone, And not for strangers with you.

Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.

Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth.

Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.

Like a loving doe and a graceful mountain goat, Let her breasts satisfy you at all times; Be exhilarated always with her love.

Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.

For why should you, my son, be exhilarated with an adulteress, And embrace the breasts of a foreigner?

And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?

For the ways of everyone are before the eyes of the LORD, And He observes all his paths.

For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord , and he pondereth all his goings.

His own wrongdoings will trap the wicked, And he will be held by the ropes of his sin.

His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.

He will die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his foolishness he will go astray.

He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.