Proverbs 7

¹ My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you.

² Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes;

³ Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart.

⁴ Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend:

⁵ So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth.

⁶ Looking out from my house, and watching through the window,

⁷ I saw among the young men one without sense,

⁸ Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house,

⁹ At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night.

¹⁰ And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart;

¹¹ She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house.

¹² Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road.

¹³ So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him:

¹⁴ I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected.

¹⁵ So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you.

¹⁶ My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt;

¹⁷ I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices.

¹⁸ Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love’s delights.

¹⁹ For the master of the house is away on a long journey:

²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon.

²¹ With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.

²² The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord;

²³ Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side.

²⁴ So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth;

²⁵ Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps.

²⁶ For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army.

²⁷ Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to the rooms of death.