10 for wisdom will come into your heart,
and knowledge will be pleasant to your soul;
11 hdiscretion will iwatch over you,
understanding will guard you,
16 So pyou will be delivered from the forbidden1 woman,
from qthe adulteress2 with rher smooth words,
17 who forsakes sthe companion of her youth
and forgets tthe covenant of her God;
18 ufor her house sinks down to death,
and her paths to the departed;3
19 none who go to her come back,
nor do they regain the paths of life.
20 So you will walk in the way of the good
and keep to the paths of the righteous.
21 For the upright vwill inhabit the land,
and those with integrity will remain in it,
22 but the wicked will be wcut off from the land,
and the treacherous will be xrooted out of it.
15 Drink owater from your own cistern,
flowing water from your own well.
16 Should your psprings be scattered abroad,
streams of water qin the streets?
17 rLet them be for yourself alone,
and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your ofountain be blessed,
and srejoice in tthe wife of your youth,
19 a lovely udeer, a graceful doe.
Let her breasts vfill you at all times with delight;
be intoxicated1 always in her love.
20 Why should you be intoxicated, my son, with wa forbidden woman
and embrace the bosom of wan adulteress?2
24 to preserve you from the evil woman,1
25 tDo not desire her beauty in your heart,
and do not let her capture you with her ueyelashes;
Warning Against the Adulteress
1 hMy son, keep my words
and htreasure up my commandments with you;
2 ikeep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as jthe apple of your eye;
3 kbind them on your fingers;
kwrite them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
3 Do hnot give your strength to women,
your ways to those iwho destroy kings.