Chapter 7

¹ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

² Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.

³ Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.

⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:

⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth 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 subtil 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 lieth in wait at every corner.)

¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

¹⁴ I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

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 goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

²⁰ He hath 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 goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

²³ Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.

²⁴ ¶ Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

²⁷ Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.