Proverbs 7
1 My son, guard my words and conceal my precepts within you.
My son, observe my sayings, and my commandments must thou treasure up with thee.
2 Son, preserve my commandments, and you shall live. And keep my law as the pupil of your eye.
Observe my commandments, and live: and my teaching as the apple of thy eyes.
3 Bind it with your fingers; write it on the tablets of your heart.
Bind them around thy fingers, write them upon the table of thy heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call prudence your friend.
Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5 So may she guard you from the woman who is an outsider, and from the stranger who sweetens her words.
That they may keep thee from an adulterous woman, from an alien that useth flattering speeches.
6 For I gaze from the window of my house, through the lattice,
For through the window of my house, through my lattice did I [once] look out,
7 and I see little ones. I consider a frenzied youth,
And I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a lad void of sense;
8 who crosses the street at the corner and close to the way of that house.
He was passing through the market-place near her corner; and he stepped along on the way to her house,
9 He steps into shadows, as day becomes evening, into the darkness and gloom of the night.
In the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the depth of the night and when it was dark:
10 And behold, a woman meets him, dressed like a harlot, prepared to captivate souls: chattering and rambling,
And, behold, a woman came to meet him with the attire of a harlot, and obdurate of heart.
11 unwilling to bear silence, unable to keep her feet at home,
(She is noisy and ungovernable; in her house her feet never rest;
12 now outside, now in the streets, now lying in ambush near the corners.
At one time she is in the street, at another in the open places, and near every corner doth she lurk, )
13 And overtaking the youth, she kisses him, and with a provocative face, she flatters him, saying:
And she caught hold of him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face she said to him,
14 “I vowed sacrifices for well-being. Today I have repaid my vows.
“I had bound myself to bring peace-offerings; this day have I paid my vows:
15 Because of this, I have gone out to meet you, desiring to see you, and I have found you.
Therefore am I come forth to meet thee, to seek thy presence diligently, and I have found thee.
16 I have woven my bed with cords. I have strewn it with embroidered tapestries from Egypt.
With tapestry coverings have I decked my bed, with embroidered coverlids of the fine linen of Egypt.
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloe, and cinnamon.
I have sprinkled my couch with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us be inebriated in abundance, and let us delight in the embraces of desire, until the day begins to dawn.
Come, let us indulge in love until the morning: let us delight ourselves with dalliances.
19 For my husband is not in his house. He has gone away on a very long journey.
For the man is not in his house, he is gone on a journey a great way off:
20 He took with him a bag of money. He will return to his house on the day of the full moon.”
The bag of money hath he taken with him, by the day of the new-moon festival only will he come home.”
21 She enmeshed him with many words, and she drew him forward with the flattery of her lips.
She seduced him by the abundance of her reasoning: by the flattery of her lips she misguided him.
22 Immediately, he follows her, like an ox being led to the sacrifice, and like a lamb acting lasciviously, and not knowing that he is being drawn foolishly into chains,
He followed after her suddenly, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, and as in fetters to his correction, the fool:
23 until the arrow pierces his liver. It is just as if a bird were to hurry into the snare. And he does not know that his actions endanger his own soul.
Till an arrow cleaveth through his liver; as a bird hasteneth into the snare, and knoweth not that it is done to take his life.
24 Therefore, my son, hear me now, and attend to the words of my mouth.
And now, O children, hearken unto me, and listen to the sayings of my mouth.
25 Do not let your mind be pulled into her ways. And do not be deceived by her paths.
Let not thy heart turn aside to her ways, do not go astray on her paths.
26 For she has tossed aside many wounded, and some of those who were very strong have been slain by her.
For many deadly wounded hath she caused to fall: yea, very numerous are all those slain by her.
