1. MY SON, be attentive to my Wisdom [godly Wisdom learned by actual and costly experience], and incline your ear to my understanding [of what is becoming and prudent for you],
2. That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation].
3. For the lips of a loose woman drip honey as a honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil; [Ezek. 20:30; Col. 2:8-10; II Pet. 2:14-17.]
4. But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged and devouring sword.
5. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold of Sheol (Hades, the place of the dead).
6. She loses sight of and walks not in the path of life; her ways wind about aimlessly, and you cannot know them.
7. Now therefore, my sons, listen to me, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8. Let your way in life be far from her, and come not near the door of her house [avoid the very scenes of temptation], [Prov. 4:15; Rom. 16:17; I Thess. 5:19-22.]
9. Lest you give your honor to others and your years to those without mercy,
10. Lest strangers [and false teachings] take their fill of your strength and wealth and your labors go to the house of an alien [from God]–
11. And you groan and mourn when your end comes, when your flesh and body are consumed,
12. And you say, How I hated instruction and discipline, and my heart despised reproof!
13. I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers nor submitted and consented to those who instructed me.