1. 我儿，要留心听我的智慧，侧耳听我的聪明， My son, be attentive to my wisdom; Incline your ear to my understanding,
2. 为要使你谨守谋略，嘴唇护卫知识。 That you may keep discretion, And your lips may guard knowledge.
3. 因为淫妇的嘴滴下蜂蜜，她的口比油更滑； For the lips of a strange woman drip honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil;
4. 至终她却苦似茵蔯，快如两刃的刀。 But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword.
5. 她的脚下入死地；她的脚步迈向阴间。 Her feet go down to death; Her steps hold fast to Sheol.
6. 她不走生命平坦的途径；她所行的变迁不定，自己却不知道。 She does not make straight the path of life: Her ways wander, and she does not know it.
7. 众子阿，现在要听从我，不可离弃我口中的话。 And now, my sons, listen to me, And do not depart from the words of my mouth.
8. 你所行的路要离她远，不可就近她的房门； Keep your way far from her, And do not go near the door of her house;
9. 免得将你的尊荣给了别人，将你的岁月给了残忍的人； Lest you give your honor to others, And your years to the cruel;
10. 免得别人满得你的赀财，你劳碌得来的归入外人的家； Lest strangers be filled with your wealth, And your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
11. 终久，你的皮肉和身体销毁，你就悲叹， And you mourn at your end, When your flesh and your body are consumed,
12. 说，我怎么恨恶训诲，我的心怎么藐视责备！ And you say, How I have hated instruction, And my heart has despised reproof!
13. 也不听从我教师的话，又不侧耳听那教导我的人； And I have not listened to the voice of my teachers Nor inclined my ear to my instructors;
14. 我在会众和大会里，几乎落在诸般的恶中。 I was almost into every evil In the midst of the congregation and assembly.
15. 你要喝自己池中的水，饮自己井里流动的水。 Drink waters out of your own cistern, And running water out of your own well.
16. 你的泉源岂可涨溢在外，如同溪水流在街上？ Should your springs be shed forth, Like streams of water in the streets?
17. 这水惟独归你一人，不可与别人同用。 Let them be yours alone, And not for strangers with you.
18. 要使你的泉源蒙福；要喜悦你少年所娶的妻， Let your fountain be blessed, And rejoice in the wife of your youth,
19. 她如可爱的麀鹿，可喜的母鹿；愿她的胸怀使你时时满足，她的爱情使你常常迷恋。 A lovely hind and a graceful doe. Let her breasts satisfy you at all times. May you be ravished with her love always.
20. 我儿，你为何迷恋淫妇？为何抱外女的胸怀？ For why should you be ravished, my son, with a strange woman And embrace the bosom of an adulteress?
21. 因为人的道路都在耶和华眼前，祂也考量人一切的途径。 For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Jehovah, And He ponders all his paths.
22. 恶人必被自己的罪孽捉住，他必被自己罪恶的绳索缠绕。 The wicked man is taken by his own iniquities, And he is held fast by the cords of his own sin.
23. 他因不受训诲就必死亡，又因愚妄过甚，必走迷了路。 He will die for lack of instruction, And in the greatness of his folly he will go astray.