The Complete Jewish Bible CJB
King James Version KJV
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding;
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My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 so that you will preserve discretion and your lips keep watch over knowledge.
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That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a woman who is a stranger drop honey, her mouth is smoother than oil;
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For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, her steps lead straight to Sh'ol;
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Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 she doesn't walk the level path of life -her course wanders all over, but she doesn't know it.
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Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 So now, children, listen to me; don't turn away from what I am saying:
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Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 distance your way from her, stay far from the door of her house;
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Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 so that you won't give your vigor to others and your years to someone who is cruel,
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Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 so strangers won't be filled with your strength and what you worked for go to a foreign house.
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Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 Then, when your flesh and bones have shrunk, at the end of your life, you would moan,
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And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 "How I hated discipline! My whole being despised reproof,
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And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 I ignored what my teachers said, I didn't listen to my instructors.
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And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I took part in almost every kind of evil, and the whole community knew it."
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I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink the water from your own cistern, fresh water from your own well.
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Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let what your springs produce be dispersed outside, streams of water flowing in the streets;
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Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 but let them be for you alone and not for strangers with you.
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Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18 Let your fountain, the wife of your youth, be blessed; find joy in her
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Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 a lovely deer, a graceful fawn; let her breasts satisfy you at all times, always be infatuated with her love.
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Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 My son, why be infatuated with an unknown woman? Why embrace the body of a loose woman?
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And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For ADONAI is watching a man's ways; he surveys all his paths.
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For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 A wicked person's own crimes will trap him, he will be held fast by the ropes of his sin.
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His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He will die from lack of discipline; the magnitude of his folly will make him totter and fall.
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He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
Complete Jewish Bible Copyright 1998 by David H. Stern. Published by Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
The King James Version is in the public domain.