Proverbs 7
1 My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you.
My son, heed my advice, and guard my instructions [as you would] [MET] [guard] a treasure.
2 Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes;
Obey my commands, and [as a result you will] live [a good life]. Consider the things that I teach you [to be very precious]; guard them, [just] like you protect your eyes.
3 Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart.
Tie my commands around your fingers [in order that they will remind you to obey them]. Always keep them in mind [MET].
4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend:
[Love] wisdom [like you love] your sister. Understand what is wise, [and let that be as dear to you as] members of your family.
5 So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth.
If you are wise and if you understand what is wise [PRS], you will not [sleep with] an immoral woman; you will not listen to a woman who tries to entice you [to sleep with her] by what she says.
6 Looking out from my house, and watching through the window,
One day, I was standing at the window inside my house, and I looked outside.
7 I saw among the young men one without sense,
I saw some young men who did not have good sense. Among them was a man who was very foolish.
8 Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house,
He crossed the street near [the house of] an immoral woman. He was walking along the path toward her house
9 At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night.
at twilight, when it was getting dark [DOU].
10 And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart;
Suddenly the woman came out to see/meet him. She was dressed (seductively/like a prostitute), wanting to persuade him to sleep with her.
11 She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house.
She was a loud talker, one who was rebellious; she [SYN] never stayed at home.
12 Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road.
She often went into the city streets and plazas/markets, waiting to trap some man.
13 So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him:
[When she saw that young man], she put her arms around him and kissed him. Then without being a bit ashamed, she said,
14 I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected.
“I have [some meat that is left over from] a sacrifice that I made today [to maintain fellowship with Yahweh]; I have fulfilled/done what I promised him that I would do.
15 So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you.
And now I have come out to meet/see you. I was searching for you, and [now] I have found you!
16 My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt;
I have put on my bed sheets/bedspreads that were made from [very fine] linen [that were imported] {[people brought]} from Egypt.
17 I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices.
I have sprinkled [sweet-smelling] perfumes on my bed— myrrh and aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love's delights.
Come [with me]; let us enjoy having sex until [tomorrow] morning. Let’s enjoy making love.
19 For the master of the house is away on a long journey:
My husband is not at home; he has gone away on a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon.
He is carrying a wallet filled with money, and he will not return until the middle of this month.”
21 With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.
[So] she persuaded him by [her] enticing/tempting words. She allured him by her smooth/sweet talk.
22 The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord;
[And] he went with her immediately, like an ox that was going to where it would be slaughtered, or like a deer (OR, a fool) that is stepping into a noose/trap,
23 Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side.
where it will remain/stay until someone shoots an arrow into its liver [and kills it]. [He was] like a bird that flew into a trap. He did not know that (it would cost him his life/he would die as a result).
24 So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth;
My son, listen to what I say; pay [careful] attention to my words.
25 Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps.
Do not allow anything to arouse/persuade you to go with an immoral woman like that. Do not go where she goes.
26 For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army.
She has caused many men to be ruined; truly, no one can count the men she has killed.
