Proverbs 7

¹ My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;

² keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

³ bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,

⁸passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house

⁹in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.

¹¹She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;

¹²now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.

¹³She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;

²⁰he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.

²²All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast

²³till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,

²⁶for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.

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