Avoiding Immorality 1My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, & incline thine eare vnto my knowledge. 2That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge. 3For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle. 4But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde. 5Her feete goe downe to death, and her steps take holde on hell. 6She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them. 7Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth. 8Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house, 9Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell: 10Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger, 11And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie) 12And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction! 13And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me! 14I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie. 15Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well. 16Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes. 17But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee. 18Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth. 19Let her be as the louing hinde and pleasant roe: let her brests satisfie thee at all times, and delite in her loue continually. 20For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger? 21For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes. 22His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne. 23Hee shall die for faute of instruction, and shall goe astraie through his great follie. |
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