Proverbs 7
- 1 My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.
- 2 Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.
- 3 Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.
- 4 Say to wisdom, 'My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, 'Kinswoman!'
- 5 To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.
- 6 For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,
- 7 And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,
- 8 Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,
- 9 In the twilight — in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.
- 10 And, lo, a woman to meet him — (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart,
- 11 Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.
- 12 Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) —
- 13 And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him,
- 14 'Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, To-day I have completed my vows.
- 15 Therefore I have come forth to meet thee, To seek earnestly thy face, and I find thee.
- 16 [With] ornamental coverings I decked my couch, Carved works — cotton of Egypt.
- 17 I sprinkled my bed — myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
- 18 Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.
- 19 For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey.
- 20 A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.'
- 21 She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.
- 22 He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool,
- 23 Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life.
- 24 And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.
- 25 Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths,
- 26 For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.
- 27 The ways of Sheol — her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death!