Proverbs 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 forth through my lattice;

⁷ And I 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 of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.

¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and wily of heart.

¹¹ She is clamorous, and wilful; her feet abide not in her house:

¹² Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner.

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

¹⁴ Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me; this day have I paid my vows.

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

¹⁶ I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn 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; he will come home at the full moon.

²¹ With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forceth him away.

²² He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as fetters to the correction of the fool;

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

²⁴ Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me, 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, all her slain are a mighty host.

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