Proverbs 5.1-4. My son, attend unto my wisdom; Incline thine ear to my understanding: That thou mayest preserve discretion, And that thy lips may keep knowledge. For the lips of a strange woman drop honey, And her mouth is smoother than oil: But in the end she is bitter as wormwood, Sharp as a two-edged sword. This can be understood both literally and figuratively. The literal understanding is obvious. As a woman can be manipulated, she can also manipulate. The word “strange” in the ASV is rendered “forbidden” in the ESV. If one touches that which is forbidden, trouble soon follows, which brings heartache, chaos and death. If the portion of this chapter is understood figuratively, then whatever is attractive that is forbidden results in a similar end. In either case, there is no chance a person will go unscarred or, ultimately, be destroyed by that which seeks to manipulate.