< Proverbs 7 >
1 My son! Keep my sayings, And lay up my commands with you.
2 Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of your eye.
3 Bind them on your fingers, Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You [are] my sister.” And cry to understanding, “Relative!”
5 To preserve you from a strange woman, From a stranger who has made her sayings smooth.
6 For at a window of my house, I have looked out through my casement,
7 And I see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,
8 Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he steps,
9 In the twilight—in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.
10 And behold, a woman to meet him—(A harlot’s dress, and watchful of heart,
11 She [is] noisy, and stubborn, her feet do not rest in her house.
12 Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And she lies in wait near every corner)—
13 And she laid hold on him and kissed him, She has hardened her face and says to him,
14 “Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, Today I have completed my vows.
15 Therefore I have come forth to meet you, To earnestly seek your face, and I find you.
16 I decked my bed [with] ornamental coverings, Carved works—cotton of Egypt.
17 I sprinkled my bed [with] myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, we are filled [with] love until the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.
19 For the man is not in his house, He has gone on a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of money in his hand, At the day of the new moon he comes to his house.”
21 She turns him aside with the abundance of her speech, She forces him with the flattery of her lips.
22 He is going after her straight away, he comes as an ox to the slaughter, And as a chain to the discipline of a fool,
23 Until an arrow splits his liver, As a bird has hurried to a snare, And has not known that it [is] for its life.
24 And now, you sons, listen to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart turn to her ways, Do not wander in her paths,
26 For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.
27 The ways of Sheol—her house, Going down to inner chambers of death! (Sheol )
