Avoiding Immorality

The son is urged to attend to wisdom so that discretion and truthful speech may guard him, because the forbidden woman appears sweet and smooth at first but proves bitter and deadly in the end. Her path does not lead to life but wanders toward death without reflection.

M¹y son, pay attention to my wisdom; ²that you may maintain discretion ³Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey ⁴in the end she is bitter as wormwood, ⁵Her feet go down to death; ⁶She does not consider the path of life;

The sons are told to keep far from such a woman so they do not surrender strength, wealth, and honor to others and end life in grief and regret. The adulterer eventually laments that he despised discipline and nearly ruined himself before the whole assembly.

⁷So now, my sons, listen to me, ⁸Keep your path far from her; ⁹lest you concede your vigor to others, ¹⁰lest strangers feast on your wealth, ¹¹At the end of your life you will groan ¹²and you will say, “How I hated discipline, ¹³I did not listen to the voice of my teachers ¹⁴I am on the brink of utter ruin

Instead of scattering desire outside covenant bounds, the son is told to rejoice in the wife of his youth and find lasting satisfaction in her love. Exclusive marital delight is presented as the proper and joyful answer to illicit attraction.

¹⁵Drink water from your own cistern, ¹⁶Why should your springs flow in the streets, ¹⁷Let them be yours alone, ¹⁸May your fountain be blessed, ¹⁹A loving doe, a graceful fawn— ²⁰Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress,

A man's ways lie before the LORD, and the wicked are caught in the cords of their own sin. The chapter ends by saying that lack of discipline leads to death and that great folly makes a person wander to destruction.

²¹For a man’s ways are before the eyes of the LORD, ²²The iniquities of a wicked man entrap him; ²³He dies for lack of discipline,