1 ARST My son, pay attention to the wise things that I tell you! Listen carefully to what I say you should understand! BSB BSB: My son, pay attention to my wisdom; incline your ear to my insight,
2 ARST { Do this} so that you may remain discreet, and you may preserve what you know when you speak. BSB BSB: that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge.
3 ARST { Do this} because what adulterous women say seems delightful like honey and more pleasing than olive oil. BSB BSB: Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil,
4 ARST However, being with such a woman will result in you being miserable, as if you had eaten a bitter plant.{ You will suffer} like a person whom someone has cut with a sharp, double- edged sword. BSB BSB: in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 ARST { Being with such a woman will result in both of you dying} as if she were leading you to where dead people are. Indeed, what she does will cause you both to die. BSB BSB: Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol.
6 ARST She does not want to do what will cause her to live for a long time. She does not realize that she{ lives precariously like someone who} is walking on an uneven path. BSB BSB: She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
7 ARST So now, children, pay attention to what I say! Always remember what I have spoken to you! BSB BSB: So now, my sons, listen to me, and do not turn aside from the words of my mouth.
8 ARST Stay far away from any adulterous woman! Do not even go near the door of the place where such a woman dwells! BSB BSB: Keep your path far from her; do not go near the door of her house,
9 ARST If you go to such a woman, people will weaken you, and some merciless person will take away{ what you have gained in} the best time of your life. BSB BSB: lest you concede your vigor to others, and your years to one who is cruel;
10 ARST If you go to such a woman, people you do not know will satisfy themselves with{ what you gained} when you were strong, and some foreign person will fill his house with what you labored to gain. BSB BSB: lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich the house of a foreigner.
11 ARST Then you will groan when you are about to die and have worn out your whole body. BSB BSB: At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
12 ARST Then you will say,“I hated it extremely when people corrected me! Indeed, I scorned people when they rebuked me! BSB BSB: and you will say, “How I hated discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13 ARST I did not obey the people who taught me. Indeed, I did not listen carefully to the people who instructed me. BSB BSB: I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my mentors.
14 ARST I almost utterly disgraced myself in public.” BSB BSB: I am on the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.”
15 ARST { So be like} someone who only drinks water from his own well; have sex with your wife only. BSB BSB: Drink water from your own cistern, and running water from your own well.
16 ARST { Do not be like} someone who lets his water run out into the streets; never have sex with other women! BSB BSB: Why should your springs flow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
17 ARST Only have sex with your own wife! Do not have sex with other women! BSB BSB: Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
18 ARST Be happy with your wife; rejoice with the woman whom you married when you were young. BSB BSB: May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth:
19 ARST { She is as beautiful as} a loving deer and{ as graceful as} a mountain goat. Let how attractive she is always satisfy you. Constantly be exhilarated by how she loves you. BSB BSB: A loving doe, a graceful fawn—may her breasts satisfy you always; may you be captivated by her love forever.
20 ARST My son, you should never be exhilarated by an adulterous woman! You should never passionately caress an immoral woman! BSB BSB: Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress, or embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 ARST { Never do that] because Yahweh fully knows what people do. Indeed, he knows everything that people do. BSB BSB: For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, and the LORD examines all his paths.
22 ARST The wicked things that wicked people do are{ like} traps that catch them; the sinful things they do are{ like] ropes that tie them down. BSB BSB: The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; the cords of his sin entangle him.
23 ARST Those wicked people will die because they did not discipline themselves. They will do what kills them because they are extremely foolish. BSB BSB: He dies for lack of discipline, led astray by his own great folly.
Select verses for actions: Enter goes to them and Escape comes back.