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Turn your eye away from a shapely woman,
        and don’t stare at beauty
        belonging to someone else.
    Many have gone astray
    because of a woman’s beauty,
        and out of it affection
        flames up like a fire.
Don’t ever sit[a] with a married woman,
        and don’t share meals
        or indulge in wine with her,
    since your soul might be attracted to her
        and you might slip into destruction
        because of your passion.[b]

10 Don’t abandon old friends,
        because newer ones are not their equals.
    New friends are like new wine;
        when wine ages,
        you will drink it with good cheer.

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Footnotes

  1. Sirach 9:9 Or Don’t sit down at a meal.
  2. Sirach 9:9 Heb in your passion; LXX in your blood

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