Proverbs Chapter 7
1 My son, keep my words and store up my commandments within you.
2 Keep my commandments and live. Keep my law as the pupil of your eye.
3 Bind them upon your fingers. Write them upon the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister and call understanding your relative⁺.
5 Thus, they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words.
6 At the window of my house, I looked through my lattice.
7 I saw among the simple ones, among the youths, a young man with no understanding.
8 Passing through the street near her corner, he went to her house.
9 He went in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night.
10 And, behold, there a woman met him with the dress of a harlot and a guarded heart.
11 She is loud and stubborn. Her feet do not stay in her house.
12 Now she is outside. Now in the streets. Evil lies in wait at every corner.
13 She caught him and kissed him. With a hard face she said to him,
14 I have peace offerings with me. Today, I have paid my vows.
15 So I came out to meet you. Earnestly to seek your face. And I have found you.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings, with striped cloths of Egyptian linen.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us delight ourselves with caresses.
19 For my husband is not at home. He has gone on a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of silver with him and will come home at the day of the full moon.
21 With her much fair speech, she caused him to yield. With flattering of her lips she forced him.
22 He goes after her immediately. Like an ox goes to the slaughter or like a fool to the correction of the stocks.
23 Until a dart strikes through his liver, like a bird hastens to the snare and does not know that it is for his soul.
24 Now listen to me, children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not go astray in her paths.
26 For she has cast down many wounded. Yes, many strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the rooms of death.