Proverbs 7

1My son, keep my words

and store up my commands within yourself.

2Keep my commands and live

and keep my instruction as the apple of your eye.

3Tie them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call understanding your kinsman,

5in order to keep yourself from the adulterous woman,

from the immoral woman with her smooth words.

6At the window of my house

I was looking out through the lattice.

7I looked at the naive people,

and I noticed among the young men

a youth who had no sense.

8That young man passed down the street near her corner,

and he went toward her house.

9It was twilight, in the evening of the day,

at the time of night and darkness.

10There a woman met him,

dressed like a prostitute, with a false heart.

11She was loud and wayward;

her feet did not stay at home.

12Now in the streets, then in the market place,

and at every corner she waited in ambush.

13So she grabbed him and kissed him,

with a strong face she said to him,

14“I made my peace offering today,

I paid my vows,

15so came I out to meet you,

to eagerly seek your face, and I have found you.

16I have spread coverings on my bed,

colored linens from Egypt.

17I have sprinkled my bed

with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

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

let us take great pleasure in acts of love.

19For my husband is not at his house;

he has gone on a long journey.

20He took a bag of money with him;

he will return on the day of the full moon.”

21With much talk she turned him;

with her smooth lips she misled him.

22He went after her suddenly

like an ox going to slaughter,

like a deer caught in a trap, 1

23until an arrow pierces through its liver.

He was like a bird rushing into a snare.

He did not know that it would cost his life.

24Now, my sons, listen to me;

pay attention to the words of my mouth.

25May your heart not turn aside onto her paths;

do not be led astray onto her paths.

26She has caused many people to fall down pierced;

her dead victims are very many.

27Her house is on the paths to Sheol;

they go down to the dark bedrooms of death.