• 1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you.
  • 2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of your eye.
  • 3 Bind them on your fingers, write them on the table of your heart.
  • 4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister; and call understanding your kinswoman:
  • 5 That they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger which flatters with her words.
  • 6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
  • 7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
  • 8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
  • 9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
  • 10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart.
  • 11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
  • 12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lies in wait at every corner.)
  • 13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said to him,
  • 14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.
  • 15 Therefore came I forth to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.
  • 16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
  • 17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
  • 18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
  • 19 For the manager is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
  • 20 He has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
  • 21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
  • 22 He goes after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
  • 23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, and knows not that it is for his life.
  • 24 Listen to me now therefore, O you children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
  • 25 Let not your heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
  • 26 For she has cast down many wounded: yes, many strong men have been slain by her.
  • 27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.