Be Faithful to Your Wife
1 My son, if you listen closely
to my wisdom and good sense,
2 you will have sound judgment,
and you will always know
the right thing to say.
3 The words of an immoral woman
may be as sweet as honey
and as smooth as olive oil.
4 But all that you really get
from being with her
is bitter poison and pain.
5 If you follow her,
she will lead you down
to the world of the dead.
6 She has missed the path
that leads to life
and doesn't even know it.
7 My son, listen to me
and do everything I say.
8 Stay away from a bad woman!
Don't even go near the door
of her house.
9 You will lose your self-respect
and end up in debt
to some cruel person
for the rest of your life.
10 Strangers will get your money
and everything else
you have worked for.
11 When it's all over,
your body will waste away,
as you groan 12 and shout,
“I hated advice and correction!
13 I paid no attention
to my teachers,
14 and now I am disgraced
in front of everyone.”
15 You should be faithful
to your wife,
just as you take water
from your own well.
16 And don't be like a stream
from which just any woman
may take a drink.
17 Save yourself for your wife
and don't have sex
with other women.
18 Be happy with the wife
you married
when you were young.
19 She is beautiful and graceful,
just like a deer;
you should be attracted to her
and stay deeply in love.
20 Don't go crazy over a woman
who is unfaithful
to her own husband!
21 The Lord sees everything,
and he watches us closely.
22 Sinners are trapped and caught
by their own evil deeds.
23 They get lost and die
because of their foolishness
and lack of self-control.
1 My sonne, hearken vnto my wisedome, and incline thine eare vnto my knowledge. 2 That thou maiest regarde counsell, and thy lippes obserue knowledge. 3 For the lippes of a strange woman drop as an honie combe, and her mouth is more soft then oyle. 4 But the end of her is bitter as wormewood, and sharpe as a two edged sworde. 5 Her feete goe downe to death, and her steps take holde on hell. 6 She weigheth not the way of life: her paths are moueable: thou canst not knowe them. 7 Heare yee me nowe therefore, O children, and depart not from the wordes of my mouth. 8 Keepe thy way farre from her, and come not neere the doore of her house, 9 Least thou giue thine honor vnto others, and thy yeeres to the cruell: 10 Least the stranger should be silled with thy strength, and thy labours bee in the house of a stranger, 11 And thou mourne at thine end, (when thou hast consumed thy flesh and thy bodie) 12 And say, How haue I hated instruction, and mine heart despised correction! 13 And haue not obeied the voyce of them that taught mee, nor enclined mine eare to them that instructed me! 14 I was almost brought into all euil in ye mids of the Congregation and assemblie. 15 Drinke the water of thy cisterne, and of the riuers out of the middes of thine owne well. 16 Let thy fountaines flow foorth, and the riuers of waters in the streetes. 17 But let them bee thine, euen thine onely, and not the strangers with thee. 18 Let thy fountaine be blessed, and reioyce with the wife of thy youth. 19 Let her be as the louing hinde and pleasant roe: let her brests satisfie thee at all times, and delite in her loue continually. 20 For why shouldest thou delite, my sonne, in a strange woman, or embrace the bosome of a stranger? 21 For the waies of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his pathes. 22 His owne iniquities shall take the wicked himselfe, and he shall be holden with the cordes of his owne sinne. 23 Hee shall die for fault of instruction, and shall goe astray through his great follie.