| 1 | My child, keep my words and store up my commandments with you; |
| 2 | keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye; |
| 3 | bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart. |
| 4 | Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend, |
| 5 | that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words. |
| 6 | For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, |
| 7 | and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the youths, a young man without sense, |
| 8 | passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house |
| 9 | in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness. |
| 10 | Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart. |
| 11 | She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home; |
| 12 | now in the street, now in the squares, and at every corner she lies in wait. |
| 13 | She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him: |
| 14 | “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows; |
| 15 | so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you! |
| 16 | I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen; |
| 17 | I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. |
| 18 | Come, let us take our fill of love until morning; let us delight ourselves with love. |
| 19 | For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. |
| 20 | He took a bag of money with him; he will not come home until full moon.” |
| 21 | With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him. |
| 22 | Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap |
| 23 | until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life. |
| 24 | And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth. |
| 25 | Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths. |
| 26 | For many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims. |
| 27 | Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death. |