9lest you give your best strength to others

and your years to one who is cruel,

10lest strangers feast on your wealth

and your toil enrich another man’s house.

11At the end of your life you will groan,

when your flesh and body are spent.

12You will say, “How I hated discipline!

How my heart spurned correction!

13I would not obey my teachers

or listen to my instructors.

14I have come to the brink of utter ruin

in the midst of the whole assembly.”

15Drink water from your own cistern,

running water from your own well.

16Should your springs overflow in the streets,

your streams of water in the public squares?

17Let them be yours alone,

never to be shared with strangers.

18May your fountain be blessed,

and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.

19A loving doe, a graceful deer—

may her breasts satisfy you always,

may you ever be captivated by her love.

20Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?

Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?

21For a man’s ways are in full view of the Lord,

and he examines all his paths.

22The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him;

the cords of his sin hold him fast.

23He will die for lack of discipline,

led astray by his own great folly.