CHAPTER 9
1 Love thou not jealously the woman of thy bosom [or Be thou not jealous to the woman of thy bosom]; lest she show on thee the malice of evil doctrine.
2 Give thou not to a woman the power of thy soul; lest she enter in thy virtue, and thou be shamed [or confounded].
3 Behold thou not a woman of many wills, that coveteth now this man, now that man; lest perad-venture thou fall into the snares of her.
4 Be thou not customable with a danceress, [or a leaperess, or tumbler], neither hire thou her; lest perad-venture thou perish in the speedy work of her.
5 Behold thou not a virgin [or a maiden]; lest peradventure thou be caused to stumble in the fairness of her.
6 Give thou not thy soul to whores in anything; lest thou lose thee, and thy soul, and thine heritage.
7 Do not thou behold about in the lanes [or ways] of the city; neither err thou in the large streets thereof.
8 Turn away thy face from a woman well arrayed; and behold thou not about the fairness of another or another man’s wife. Many men have perished for the fairness of a woman; and thereby covetousness [or lust] burneth on high as fire or concupiscence burneth out as fire. Each woman which is an whore, either customable to fornication, shall be defouled as a fen, or a turd, in the way, [or Each woman that is lech-erous, as a thost, or dung, in the way shall be trodden]. Many men won-dering on the fairness of an alien woman were made reprovable, for why the speech of her burneth on high as fire.
9 Sit thou not in any manner with an alien woman, neither rest thou with her on a bed [nor lie thou with her upon the arm]; and jangle thou not with her in wine, lest per-adventure thine heart bow into her, and thou fall into perdition by thy blood [or by thy blood thou slide into perdition].
10 Forsake thou not an eld [or old] friend; for a new friend shall not be like him. New wine is like a new friend; it shall wax eld [or old], and thou shalt drink it with sweetness.
11 Covet [or Love] thou not the glory and riches of a sinner; for thou knowest not, what destroying of him shall come.
12 The wrong of unjust [or unright-wise] men please not thee, and know thou that a wicked man [or the unpious] shall not please till to hells [or hell].
13 Be thou far from a man that hath power to slay, that is, from a cruel tyrant, and thou shalt not have suspicion of the dread of death; and if thou nighest to him, do not thou do any trespass [or anything do amiss], lest peradventure he take away thy life. Know thou the communing of death; for thou shalt enter into the midst of snares, and thou shalt go on the arms of them that sorrow.
14 By thy virtue, keep thee from thy neighbour that may speak against thee to a tyrant; and treat thou with wise men and prudent men.
15 Just [or Rightwise] men be guests, or meat-frères, [or meat-fellows], to thee; and thy glorying be in the dread of God.
16 And the thought of God be to thee in wit, that is, apply thy wit to think on God; and all thy telling be in the behests of the Highest.
17 Works shall be praised in the hand of craftsmen, and the prince of the people in the wisdom of his word; forsooth in the wit of elder men [or elders] a word shall be praised.
18 A man, a jangler [or a tonguey man], is dreadful in his city; and a fool-hardy man in his word shall be hateful.