Proverbs 7:1-27
7 My son, keep my sayings,And treasure up my commandments.+
2 Keep my commandments and live;+Guard my instruction* like the pupil of your eye.
3 Tie them around your fingers;Write them on the tablet of your heart.+
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding “my relative,”
5 To guard you against the wayward* woman,+Against the immoral* woman and her smooth* words.+
6 From the window of my house,Through my lattice, I looked down,
7 And as I observed the naive* ones,I discerned among the youths a young man lacking good sense.*+
8 He passed along the street near her corner,And he marched in the direction of her house
9 In the twilight, in the evening,+At the approach of night and darkness.
10 Then I saw a woman meet him,Dressed like* a prostitute,+ with a cunning heart.
11 She is loud and defiant.+
She never stays* at home.
12 One moment she is outside, next she is in the public squares,She lurks near every corner.+
13 She grabs hold of him and gives him a kiss;With a bold face, she says to him:
14 “I had to offer communion sacrifices.+
Today I paid my vows.
15 That is why I came out to meet you,To look for you, and I found you!
16 I have spread fine covers upon my bed,Colorful linen from Egypt.+
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.+
18 Come, let us drink our fill of love until the morning;Let us enjoy passionate love together,
19 For my husband is not at home;He has gone on a distant journey.
20 He took a bag of money with him,And he will not return until the day of the full moon.”
21 She misleads him with great persuasiveness.+
She seduces him with smooth speech.
22 Suddenly he goes after her, like a bull to the slaughter,Like a fool to be punished in the stocks,*+
23 Until an arrow pierces his liver;Like a bird rushing into a trap, he does not know that it will cost him his life.*+
24 And now, my sons, listen to me;Pay attention to the words I speak.
25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways.
Do not stray onto her paths,+
26 For she has caused many to fall down slain,+And those she has killed are numerous.+
27 Her house leads to the Grave;*It goes down to the inner chambers of death.
Footnotes
^ Or “law.”
^ Or “seductive.”
^ Or “inexperienced.”
^ Lit., “in want of heart.”
^ Or “with the garment of.”
^ Lit., “Her feet never stay.”
^ Or “fetters.”
^ Or “soul.”