CHAPTER 5
1 My son, perceive thou my wisdom, and bow down thine ear to my prudence;
2 that thou keep thy thoughts, and thy lips keep teaching.
3 Give thou not attention to the falseness of a woman; for the lips of an whore be an honeycomb dropping, and her throat is clearer than oil;
4 but the last things [of her]be bitter as wormwood, and her tongue is sharp as a sword carving, or cutting, on each side.
5 Her feet go down into death; and her steps pierce to hells [or to hell].
6 Those [or they] go not by the path of life; her steps be uncertain, and may not be sought out.
7 Now therefore, my son, hear thou me, and go thou not away from the words of my mouth.
8 Make far thy way from her, and nigh thou not to the doors of her house.
9 Give thou not thine honour to aliens, and thy years to the cruel;
10 lest peradventure strangers be filled with thy strengths, and lest thy travails be in an alien’s house;
11 and thou bewail in the last days, when thou hast wasted thy flesh, and thy body;
12 and say, Why loathed I teaching, and mine heart assented not to blamings;
13 neither I heard the voice of men teaching me, and I bowed not down mine ear to masters?
14 Almost I was in all-evil, in the midst of the church, and of the synagogue.
15 Drink thou water of thy cistern, and the floods of thy well.
16 Thy wells be streamed forth; and part thy waters in streets.
17 Have thou alone them [or them alone]; and aliens be not thy partners.
18 Thy vein be blessed; and be thou glad with the woman of thy young waxing age.
19 An hind most dearworthy; and an hart calf most acceptable. Her teats fill thee in all time; and delight thou continually in the love of her.
20 My son, why art thou deceived of an alien woman; and art fostered in the bosom of another?
21 The Lord seeth the ways of a man; and he beholdeth all his steps.
22 The wickednesses of a wicked man take him; and he is bound with the ropes of his sins.
23 He shall die, for he had not learning, and he shall be deceived in the muchliness of his folly.