10 The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the counsel of saints is understanding:
10a for to know the law is the character of a sound mind.
11 For in this way thou shalt live long, and years of thy life shall be added to thee.
12 Son, if thou be wise for thyself, thou shalt also be wise for thy neighbours; and if thou shouldest prove wicked, thou alone wilt bear the evil.
12a He that stays himself upon falsehoods, attempts to rule the winds, and the same will pursue birds in their flight:
12b for he has forsaken the ways of his own vineyard, and he has caused the axles of his own husbandry to go astray;
12c and he goes through a dry desert, and a land appointed to drought, and he gathers barrenness with his hands.
13 A foolish and bold woman, who knows not modesty, comes to want a morsel.
14 She sits at the doors of her house, on a seat openly in the streets,
15 calling to passers by, and to those that are going right on their ways;
16 saying, Whoso is most senseless of you, let him turn aside to me; and I exhort those that want prudence, saying,
17 Take and enjoy secret bread, and the sweet water of theft.
18 But he knows that mighty men die by her, and he falls in with a snare of hell.
18a But hasten away, delay not in the place, neither fix thine eye upon her:
18b for thus shalt thou go through strange water;
18c but do thou abstain from strange water, and drink not of a strange fountain,
18d that thou mayest live long, and years of life may be added to thee.