| 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.
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Public Domain