He will die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.
If you have been snared with the words of your mouth, Have been caught with the words of your mouth,
Do this then, my son, and deliver yourself; Since you have come into the hand of your neighbor, Go, humble yourself, and importune your neighbor.
Deliver yourself like a gazelle from the hunter’s hand And like a bird from the hand of the fowler.
Go to the ant, O sluggard, Observe her ways and be wise,
Prepares her food in the summer And gathers her provision in the harvest.
“A little sleep, a little slumber, A little folding of the hands to rest”--
A worthless person, a wicked man, Is the one who walks with a perverse mouth,
There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him:
My son, observe the commandment of your father And do not forsake the teaching of your mother;
For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching is light; And reproofs for discipline are the way of life
To keep you from the evil woman, From the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for the precious life.
So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.
But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; He must give all the substance of his house.
The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.
For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.
Keep my commandments and live, And my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.
That they may keep you from an adulteress, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.
For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,
And I saw among the naive, And discerned among the youths A young man lacking sense,
Passing through the street near her corner; And he takes the way to her house,
In the twilight, in the evening, In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
She is now in the streets, now in the squares, And lurks by every corner.
He has taken a bag of money with him, At the full moon he will come home.”
Suddenly he follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,
Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hastens to the snare, So he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth.
For many are the victims she has cast down, And numerous are all her slain.
Her house is the way to Sheol, Descending to the chambers of death.
On top of the heights beside the way, Where the paths meet, she takes her stand;
Beside the gates, at the opening to the city, At the entrance of the doors, she cries out:
“To you, O men, I call, And my voice is to the sons of men.
“Listen, for I will speak noble things; And the opening of my lips will reveal right things.
“All the utterances of my mouth are in righteousness; There is nothing crooked or perverted in them.
“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverted mouth, I hate.
“I walk in the way of righteousness, In the midst of the paths of justice,
“The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old.
“From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth.
“Before the mountains were settled, Before the hills I was brought forth;
While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world.
“When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep,
When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed,
When He set for the sea its boundary So that the water would not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth;
Rejoicing in the world, His earth, And having my delight in the sons of men.
“Blessed is the man who listens to me, Watching daily at my gates, Waiting at my doorposts.
“For he who finds me finds life And obtains favor from the LORD.
She has sent out her maidens, she calls From the tops of the heights of the city:
“Come, eat of my food And drink of the wine I have mixed.
New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995
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