Proverbs

¹ My son, keep my words

and treasure my commandments within you.

² Keep my commandments and live;

guard my teachings as the apple ^[a] of your eye.

³ Tie them to your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call understanding your kinsman,

⁵ that they may keep you from the adulteress,

from the stranger with seductive words.

⁶ For at the window of my house

I looked through the lattice.

⁷ I saw among the simple,

I noticed among the youths,

a young man lacking judgment,

⁸ crossing the street near her corner,

strolling down the road to her house,

⁹ at twilight, as the day was fading

into the dark of the night.

¹⁰ Then a woman came out to meet him,

with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.

¹¹ She is loud and defiant;

her feet do not remain at home.

¹² Now in the street, now in the squares,

she lurks at every corner.

¹³ She seizes him and kisses him;

she brazenly says to him:

¹⁴ “I have made my peace offerings;

today I have paid my vows.

¹⁵ So I came out to meet you;

I sought you, and I have found you.

¹⁶ I have decked my bed with coverings,

with colored linen from Egypt.

¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

with aloes, and with cinnamon.

¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till morning.

Let us delight in loving caresses!

¹⁹ For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰ He took with him a bag of money

and will not return till the moon is full.”

²¹ With her great persuasion she entices him;

with her flattering lips she lures him.

²² He follows her on impulse,

like an ox going to the slaughter,

like a deer bounding into a trap, ^[b]

²³ until an arrow pierces his liver,

like a bird darting into a snare—

not knowing it will cost him his life.

²⁴ Now, my sons, listen to me,

and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵ Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths.

²⁶ For she has brought many down to death;

her slain are many in number.

²⁷ Her house is the road to Sheol,

descending to the chambers of death.