| 1 | My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you. |
| 2 | Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye. |
| 3 | Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. |
| 4 | Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative, |
| 5 | that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words. |
| 6 | For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice. |
| 7 | I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding, |
| 8 | passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house, |
| 9 | in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. |
| 10 | Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent. |
| 11 | She is loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house. |
| 12 | Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner. |
| 13 | So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him: |
| 14 | "Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows. |
| 15 | Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you. |
| 16 | I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. |
| 17 | I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. |
| 18 | Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving. |
| 19 | For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey. |
| 20 | He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon." |
| 21 | With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him. |
| 22 | He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose. |
| 23 | Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn't know that it will cost his life. |
| 24 | Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth. |
| 25 | Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her paths, |
| 26 | for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army. |
| 27 | Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death. |
