Proverbs 7

7 ¹My son, keep my words,

And lay up my commandments with thee.

²Keep my commandments and live;

And my law as the apple of thine eye.

³Bind them upon thy fingers;

Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.

⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister;

And call understanding thy kinswoman:

⁵That they may keep thee from the strange woman,

From the foreigner that flattereth with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house

I looked forth through my lattice;

⁷And I beheld among the simple ones,

I discerned among the youths,

A young man void of understanding,

⁸Passing through the street near her corner;

And he went the way to her house,

⁹In the twilight, in the evening of the day,

In the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰And, behold, there met him a woman

With the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart.

¹¹She is clamorous and wilful;

Her feet abide not in her house:

¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places,

And lieth in wait at every corner.

¹³So she caught him, and kissed him,

And with an impudent face she said unto him:

¹⁴Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me;

This day have I paid my vows.

¹⁵Therefore came I forth to meet thee,

Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,

With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed

With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning;

Let us solace ourselves with loves.

¹⁹For the man is not at home;

He is gone a long journey:

²⁰He hath taken a bag of money with him;

He will come home at the full moon.

²¹With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield;

With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along.

²²He goeth after her straightway,

As an ox goeth to the slaughter,

Or as one in fetters to the correction of the fool;

²³Till an arrow strike through his liver;

As a bird hasteth to the snare,

And knoweth not that it is for his life.

²⁴Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,

And attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Let not thy heart decline to her ways;

Go not astray in her paths.

²⁶For she hath cast down many wounded:

Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,

Going down to the chambers of death.