1 يا ابني اصغ الى حكمتي. امل اذنك الى فهمي | 1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen careful y to what I know; |
2 لحفظ التدابير ولتحفظ شفتاك معرفة. | 2 so that you may preserve discretion and your lips may guard knowledge. Take no notice of a loose-living woman, |
3 لان شفتي المرأة الاجنبية تقطران عسلا وحنكها انعم من الزيت. | 3 for the lips of the adulteress drip with honey, her palate is more unctuous than oil, |
4 لكن عاقبتها مرة كالافسنتين حادة كسيف ذي حدين. | 4 but in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a two-edged sword. |
5 قدماها تنحدران الى الموت. خطواتها تتمسك بالهاوية. | 5 Her feet go down to death, Sheol the goal of her steps; |
6 لئلا تتأمل طريق الحياة تمايلت خطواتها ولا تشعر | 6 far from fol owing the path of life, her course is uncertain and she does not know it. |
7 والآن ايها البنون اسمعوا لي ولا ترتدوا عن كلمات فمي. | 7 And now, son, listen to me, never deviate from what I say: |
8 ابعد طريقك عنها ولا تقرب الى باب بيتها. | 8 set your course as far from her as possible, go nowhere near the door of her house, |
9 لئلا تعطي زهرك لآخرين وسنينك للقاسي. | 9 or she wil hand over your honour to others, the years of your life to a man without pity, |
10 لئلا تشبع الاجانب من قوتك وتكون اتعابك في بيت غريب. | 10 and strangers wil batten on your property, and your produce go to the house of a stranger, |
11 فتنوح في اواخرك عند فناء لحمك وجسمك | 11 and, at your ending, your body and flesh having been consumed, you wil groan |
12 فتقول كيف اني ابغضت الادب ورذل قلبي التوبيخ | 12 and exclaim, 'Alas, I hated discipline, my heart spurned al correction; |
13 ولم اسمع لصوت مرشدي ولم امل اذني الى معلميّ. | 13 I would not attend to the voice of my masters, I would not listen to those who tried to teach me. |
14 لولا قليل لكنت في كل شر في وسط الزمرة والجماعة | 14 Now I have come to nearly every kind of misery, in the assembly and in the community.' |
15 اشرب مياها من جبك ومياها جارية من بئرك. | 15 Drink the water from your own storage-well, fresh water from your own spring. |
16 لا تفض ينابيعك الى الخارج سواقي مياه في الشوارع. | 16 Even if your fountains overflow outside, your streams of water in the public squares: |
17 لتكن لك وحدك وليس لاجانب معك. | 17 let them be for you alone, and not for strangers with you. |
18 ليكن ينبوعك مباركا وافرح بامرأة شبابك | 18 May your fountain-head be blessed! Find joy with the wife you married in your youth, |
19 الظبية المحبوبة والوعلة الزهية. ليروك ثدياها في كل وقت وبمحبتها اسكر دائما. | 19 fair as a hind, graceful as a fawn: hers the breasts that ever fill you with delight, hers the love that everholds you captive. |
20 فلم تفتن يا ابني باجنبية وتحتضن غريبة. | 20 Why be seduced, my son, by someone else's wife, and fondle the breast of a woman who belongs toanother? |
21 لان طرق الانسان امام عيني الرب وهو يزن كل سبله. | 21 For the eyes of Yahweh observe human ways, and survey al human paths. |
22 الشرير تأخذه آثامه وبحبال خطيته يمسك. | 22 The wicked is snared in his own misdeeds, is caught in the meshes of his own sin. |
23 انه يموت من عدم الادب وبفرط حمقه يتهور | 23 For want of discipline, he dies, led astray by his own excessive folly. |