King James Version KJV
Good News Translation GNT
1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
1
My child, pay attention and listen to my wisdom and insight.
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
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Then you will know how to behave properly, and your words will show that you have knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
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The lips of another man's wife may be as sweet as honey and her kisses as smooth as olive oil,
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.
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but when it is all over, she leaves you nothing but bitterness and pain.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
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She will take you down to the world of the dead; the road she walks is the road to death.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
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She does not stay on the road to life; but wanders off, and does not realize what is happening.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
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Now listen to me, sons, and never forget what I am saying.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
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Keep away from such a woman! Don't even go near her door!
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
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If you do, others will gain the respect that you once had, and you will die young at the hands of merciless people.
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
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Yes, strangers will take all your wealth, and what you have worked for will belong to someone else.
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
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You will lie groaning on your deathbed, your flesh and muscles being eaten away,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
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and you will say, "Why would I never learn? Why would I never let anyone correct me?
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
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I wouldn't listen to my teachers. I paid no attention to them.
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
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And suddenly I found myself publicly disgraced."
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
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Be faithful to your own wife and give your love to her alone.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
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Children that you have by other women will do you no good.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
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Your children should grow up to help you, not strangers.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
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So be happy with your wife and find your joy with the woman you married -
19 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.
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pretty and graceful as a deer. Let her charms keep you happy; let her surround you with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
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Son, why should you give your love to another woman? Why should you prefer the charms of another man's wife?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the LORD, and he pondereth all his goings.
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The Lord sees everything you do. Wherever you go, he is watching.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
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The sins of the wicked are a trap. They get caught in the net of their own sin.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
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They die because they have no self-control. Their utter stupidity will send them to their graves.
The King James Version is in the public domain.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.