Bible Reading Plan

¹ My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
listen closely^[a] to my understanding^(a)
2 so that you may maintain discretion
and your lips safeguard knowledge.^(b)
3 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey
and her words are^[b] smoother than oil,
⁴ in the end she's as bitter as wormwood^(c)
and as sharp as a double-edged sword.^(d)
5 Her feet go down to death;
her steps head straight for Sheol.^(e)
6 She doesn't consider the path of life;
she doesn't know that her ways are unstable.

⁷ So now, my sons, listen to me,
and don't turn away from the words of my mouth.^(f)
8 Keep your way far from her.
Don't go near the door of her house.^(g)
9 Otherwise, you will give up your vitality to others
and your years to someone cruel;
¹⁰ strangers will drain your resources,
and your earnings will end up in a foreigner's house.
¹¹ At the end of your life, you will lament
when your physical body has been consumed,
¹² and you will say, "How I hated discipline,
and how my heart despised correction.^(h)
13 I didn't obey my teachers
or listen closely^[c] to my mentors.
¹⁴ I am on the verge of complete ruin
before the entire community."

¹⁵ Drink water from your own cistern,
water flowing from your own well.^(i)
16 Should your springs flow in the streets,
streams of water in the public squares?^(j)
17 They should be for you alone
and not for you to share with strangers.
¹⁸ Let your fountain be blessed,
and take pleasure in the wife of your youth.^(k)
19 A loving doe, a graceful fawn—
let her breasts always satisfy you;^(l)
be lost in her love forever.
²⁰ Why, my son, would you be infatuated
with a forbidden woman
or embrace the breast of a stranger?^(m)
21 For a man's ways are before the Lord 's eyes,⁽ⁿ⁾
and He considers all his paths.^(o)
22 A wicked man's iniquities entrap him;^(p)
he is entangled in the ropes of his own sin.^(q)
23 He will die because there is no discipline,^(r)
and be lost because of his great stupidity.