1 My son, attend unto my wisdom, and bow thine ear to my understanding:
2 That thou mayest regard discretion, and that thy lips may keep knowledge.
3 For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:
4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.
6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.
7 Hear me now therefore, O ye children, and depart not from the words of my mouth.
8 Remove thy way far from her, and come not nigh the door of her house:
9 Lest thou give thine honour unto others, and thy years unto the cruel:
10 Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
11 And thou mourn at the last, when thy flesh and thy body are consumed,
12 And say, How have I hated instruction, and my heart despised reproof;
13 And have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that instructed me!
14 I was almost in all evil in the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15 Drink waters out of thine own cistern, and running waters out of thine own well.
16 Let thy fountains be dispersed abroad, and rivers of waters in the streets.
17 Let them be only thine own, and not strangers' with thee.
18 Let thy fountain be blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.
19 Let her be as the loving hind and pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee at all times; and be thou ravished always with her love.
20 And why wilt thou, my son, be ravished with a strange woman, and embrace the bosom of a stranger?
21 For the ways of man are before the eyes of the Lord, and he pondereth all his goings.
22 His own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins.
23 He shall die without instruction; and in the greatness of his folly he shall go astray.
<html><b>drip honey</b> Heb. נפת, an expression of sweetness. <b>the lips of a strange woman</b> Apostasy. <b>her palate</b> Heb. חכה, an expression of חךּ, a palate.</html>
<html><b>come near</b> Heb. יתמכו, an expression of nearness.</html>
<html><b>Lest you weigh the path of life</b> So did the Sages (Tanhuma Ekev 2) expound it: The Holy One, blessed be He, moved away (טלטל) the reward for the commandments and did not explain it [the reward], so that a person should not see a commandment for which the reward is great and cling to it and leave over the other commandments. This is the interpretation: Lest you weigh the ways of the Torah, which one to take and which one to leave, therefore its paths wandered off—God caused them to wander off and He did not make them known. This is the Midrash Aggadah, but according to the sequence of the verses, since after it is written: “And now, children, hearken to me and do not turn away from the sayings of my mouth. Distance your way from her,” it appears that he has not yet ended the section dealing with the harlot, and it should be interpreted as follows: <b>Lest you weigh the path of life</b> Do not weigh the path of life in conjunction with that strange one, saying what to do, whether this one or this one [i.e., whether to follow the path of life or the path of the strange woman], for the paths of the harlot have wandered off to the grave, and you will not know how to beware until you wander off and fall.</html>
<html><b>lest you give others your glory</b> Lest you turn your heart to other gods to give them the glory of your beauty and your praise. <b>and your years to a cruel one</b> To the prince of Gehinnom.</html>
<html><b>lest strangers be sated with your strength</b> The prophets of Baal, who collect money with their lies and their hastiness. <b>and your labors</b> And your toil, with which you were saddened and fatigued. <b>in the house of an alien</b> In the pagan temple of the pagans.</html>
<html><b>And you shall moan when your end comes</b> The end will be that you will moan when your end comes.</html>
<html><b>I was almost in all evil</b> There is but a step between me and Gehinnom. (Because of a little thing, I was now “in all evil,” for I did not obey my instructors; had I obeyed them, this would not have happened to me. From Rabbi Joseph Kara.)</html>
<html><b>Drink water from your own cistern</b> From the cistern that the Holy One, blessed be He, gave you for your share, viz. the Law of Moses. <b>your own cistern</b> This denotes gathered water. <b>and running water</b> Heb. ונזלים, spring water. In the beginning it is like gathered water, and at the end it gushes out more and more.</html>
<html><b>May your springs spread out</b> In the end you will acquire disciples, and you will promulgate decisions in public, and you will gain a reputation. <b>in the squares</b> of the city the rivulets of your water shall spread.</html>
<html><b>You alone shall have them</b> You alone will be honored by them, and no one else will share your honor with you. Since he says above, “Lest strangers be satisfied with your strength,” he says here, “You alone shall have them, and thereby…”</html>
<html><b>Your fountain shall be blessed, and you shall rejoice with the wife of your youth</b> That is the Torah which you learned in your youth.</html>
<html><b>you shall always be intoxicated</b> Heb. תשגה. I saw in the words of Rabbi Moshe Hadarshan that תשגה means “you shall always busy yourself,” and it is an Arabic expression. He cited as proof, “to seek shegiah,” meaning to seek business, but I do not know where it is stated. But our Sages explained it as an expression of intoxication (lit. inadvertence), as its apparent meaning. On account of her love, you shall be inadvertent in your other affairs, because she will guard your things. They said concerning Rabbi Eleazar the son of Pedath, that he was preaching in the lower market and his cloak was lying in the upper market. Once a man came and found a snake coiled on it.</html>
<html><b>For man’s ways are opposite the Lord’s eyes, and He weighs, etc.</b> He weighs his ways and knows how many sins and how many merits he has.</html>
<html><b>His iniquities shall trap</b> Heb. ילכדנו it. shall trap him, like ילכדוהו. <b>and he shall be hanged with the ropes of his sin</b> יתמך, lit. he shall be supported. He shall be hanged, for the one hanged is supported by the ropes with which he is hanged.</html>
<html><b>He shall die without discipline</b> Because he did not accept discipline.</html>