| Holman Christian Standard Bible | International Standard Version |
| 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom; listen closely to my understanding | 1My son, pay attention to my wisdom, and listen closely to my insight, |
| 2so that you may maintain discretion and your lips safeguard knowledge. | 2so you may carefully practice discretion and your lips preserve knowledge. |
| 3Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her words are smoother than oil, | 3For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil. |
| 4in the end she's as bitter as wormwood and as sharp as a double-edged sword. | 4But in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, and as sharp as a double-edged sword. |
| 5Her feet go down to death; her steps head straight for Sheol. | 5Her feet go down to death; her steps lead to Sheol. |
| 6She doesn't consider the path of life; she doesn't know that her ways are unstable. | 6You aren't thinking about where her life is headed; her steps wander, but you do not realize it. |
| 7So now, my sons, listen to me, and don't turn away from the words of my mouth. | 7Now, children, listen to me. Don't turn away from what I am saying. |
| 8Keep your way far from her. Don't go near the door of her house. | 8Keep far away from her, and don't go near the entrance to her house, |
| 9Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others and your years to someone cruel; | 9so that you don't give your honor to others, and waste your best years; |
| 10strangers will drain your resources, and your earnings will end up in a foreigner's house. | 10so that strangers don't enrich themselves at your expense, and your work won't end up the possession of foreigners. |
| 11At the end of your life, you will lament when your physical body has been consumed, | 11You will cry out in anguish when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed, |
| 12and you will say, "How I hated discipline, and how my heart despised correction. | 12and you will say, "How I hated instruction, and my heart rejected correction! |
| 13I didn't obey my teachers or listen closely to my mentors. | 13I did not obey my teachers and did not listen to my instructors. |
| 14I am on the verge of complete ruin before the entire community." | 14Now I am at the point of utter disaster in the assembly and in the congregation." |
| 15Drink water from your own cistern, water flowing from your own well. | 15Drink water from your own cistern, and fresh water from your own well. |
| 16Should your springs flow in the streets, streams of water in the public squares? | 16Should your springs flow outside, or streams of water in the street? |
| 17They should be for you alone and not for you to share with strangers. | 17They should be for you alone and not for strangers who are with you. |
| 18Let your fountain be blessed, and take pleasure in the wife of your youth. | 18Let your fountain be blessed and enjoy the wife of your youth. |
| 19A loving doe, a graceful fawn-- let her breasts always satisfy you; be lost in her love forever. | 19Like a loving deer, a beautiful doe, let her breasts satisfy you all the time. Be constantly intoxicated by her love. |
| 20Why, my son, would you be infatuated with a forbidden woman or embrace the breast of a stranger? | 20Why should you be intoxicated by an adulteress, my son, and embrace the bosom of a foreign woman? |
| 21For a man's ways are before the LORD's eyes, and He considers all his paths. | 21Indeed, what a man does is always in the LORD's presence, and he weighs all his paths. |
| 22A wicked man's iniquities entrap him; he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin. | 22The wicked person's iniquities will capture him, and he will be held with the cords of his sin. |
| 23He will die because there is no discipline, and be lost because of his great stupidity. | 23He will die for lack of discipline, and he goes astray because of his great folly. |
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