A reading from the book of Proverbs.

My son, be attentive to my wisdom.

Incline your ear to my understanding that you may keep discretion, and your lips may guard knowledge,

for the lips of a forbidden woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil,

but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword.

Her feet go down to death, her steps follow the path to she-all.

She does not ponder the path of life, her ways wander, and she does not know it.

And now, O sons, listen to me, and do not depart from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her, and do not go near the door of her house,

lest you give your honor to others, and your years to the merciless,

lest strangers take their feel of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,

and at the end of your life you groan, when your flesh and body are consumed,

and you say, how I hated discipline,

and my heart despised reproof. I did not listen to the voice of my teachers or incline my ear to my

instructors. I am at the brink of utter ruin in the assembled congregation. Drink water from your own

cistern, flowing water from your own well. Should your springs be

scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets? Let them be for yourself alone, and not for

strangers with you. Let your fountain be blessed and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer,

a graceful dough, let her breasts fill you at all times with delight, be intoxicated always in

her love. Why should you be intoxicated my son with a forbidden woman, and embrace the bosom of an

adulteress? For a man's ways are before the eyes of the Lord, and he ponderes all his paths,

the iniquities of the wicked ensnare him, and he is held fast in the

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