Proverbs 7
Warnings about the Adulteress
¹ My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.
² Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple 1 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,2
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.