New Revised Standard NRS
The Bible in Basic English BBE
1 My child, be attentive to my wisdom; incline your ear to my understanding,
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My son, give attention to my wisdom; let your ear be turned to my teaching:
2 so that you may hold on to prudence, and your lips may guard knowledge.
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So that you may be ruled by a wise purpose, and your lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a loose woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil;
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For honey is dropping from the lips of the strange woman, and her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
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But her end is bitter as wormwood, and sharp as a two-edged sword;
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps follow the path to Sheol.
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Her feet go down to death, and her steps to the underworld;
6 She does not keep straight to the path of life; her ways wander, and she does not know it.
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She never keeps her mind on the road of life; her ways are uncertain, she has no knowledge.
7 And now, my child, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
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Give ear to me then, my sons, and do not put away my words from you.
8 Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house;
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Go far away from her, do not come near the door of her house;
9 or you will give your honor to others, and your years to the merciless,
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For fear that you may give your honour to others, and your wealth to strange men:
10 and strangers will take their fill of your wealth, and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
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And strange men may be full of your wealth, and the fruit of your work go to the house of others;
11 and at the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,
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And you will be full of grief at the end of your life, when your flesh and your body are wasted;
12 and you say, "Oh, how I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
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And you will say, How was teaching hated by me, and my heart put no value on training;
13 I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my instructors.
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I did not give attention to the voice of my teachers, my ear was not turned to those who were guiding me!
14 Now I am at the point of utter ruin in the public assembly."
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I was in almost all evil in the company of the people.
15 Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.
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Let water from your store and not that of others be your drink, and running water from your fountain.
16 Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?
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Let not your springs be flowing in the streets, or your streams of water in the open places.
17 Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.
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Let them be for yourself only, not for other men with you.
18 Let your fountain be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth,
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Let blessing be on your fountain; have joy in the wife of your early years.
19 a lovely deer, a graceful doe. May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love.
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As a loving hind and a gentle doe, let her breasts ever give you rapture; let your passion at all times be moved by her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, by another woman and embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
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Why let yourself, my son, go out of the way with a strange woman, and take another woman in your arms?
21 For human ways are under the eyes of the Lord, and he examines all their paths.
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For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he puts all his goings in the scales.
22 The iniquities of the wicked ensnare them, and they are caught in the toils of their sin.
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The evil-doer will be taken in the net of his crimes, and prisoned in the cords of his sin.
23 They die for lack of discipline, and because of their great folly they are lost.
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He will come to his end for need of teaching; he is so foolish that he will go wandering from the right way.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The Bible in Basic English is in the public domain.