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5My child, be attentive to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding,
²so that you may hold on to prudence,
and your lips may guard knowledge.
³For the lips of a loose woman drip honey,
and her speech is smoother than oil;
⁴but in the end she is bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a two-edged sword.
⁵Her feet go down to death;
her steps follow the path to Sheol.
⁶She does not keep straight to the path of life;
her ways wander, and she does not know it. ⁷And now, my child, listen to me,
and do not depart from the words of my mouth.
⁸Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house;
⁹or you will give your honor to others,
and your years to the merciless,
¹⁰and strangers will take their fill of your wealth,
and your labors will go to the house of an alien;
¹¹and at the end of your life you will groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
¹²and you say, “Oh, how I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof !
¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers
or incline my ear to my instructors.
¹⁴Now I am at the point of utter ruin
in the public assembly.”