1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, & incline thine eare vnto my knowledge.
2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge.
3 For the lipsThat is, a harlot who gives herself to someone other than her husband.of a strange woman drop [as] an honeycomb, and her mouth [is] smoother thanBy oil and honey he means flattering and crafty enticements.oil:
4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde.
5 HerAll her doings lead to destruction.feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways areShe has always new means to allure to wickedness.moveable, [that] thou canst not know [them].
7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth.
8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house,
9 Lest thou give thineThat is, your strength and goods to her who will have no pity on you as is read of Samson and the prodigal son.honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thyThe goods gotten by your travel.labours [be] in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie)
12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction!
13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation andAlthough I was faithfully instructed in the truth, yet I almost fell to utter shame and destruction nonetheless, by good bringing up in the assembly of the godly.assembly.
15 Drink waters out ofHe teaches us sobriety exhorting us to live of our own labours and to be beneficial to the godly who want.thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes.
17 Let them be onlyDistribute them not to the wicked and infidels, but reserve them for yourself, your family and them who are of the household of faith.thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18 Let thyYour children who will come from you in great abundance showing that God blesses marriage and curses whoredom.fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thyWho you married in your youth.youth.
19 Let her be as the louing hinde and pleasant roe: let her brests satisfie thee at all times, and delite in her loue continually.
20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man [are] before theHe declares that unless a man joins to his wife both in heart and in outward conversation, he will not escape the judgments of God.eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne.
23 He shallBecause he will not give ear to God's word and be admonished.die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
