Proverbs 7

¹My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. ²Keep my commandments and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. ³Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the table of thine heart. ⁴Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thykinswoman: ⁵That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. ⁶For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice; ⁷And I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, ⁸Passing through the street near her corner, and he went the way to her house; ⁹In the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness. ¹⁰And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and wily of heart. ¹¹She is clamorous, and wilful; her feet abide not in her house: ¹²Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner. ¹³So she caught him, and kissed him, andwith an impudent face she said unto him: ¹⁴Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me; this day have I paid my vows. ¹⁵Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. ¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. ¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves. ¹⁹For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: ²⁰He hath taken a bag of money with him; he will come home at the full moon. ²¹With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forceth him away. ²²He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as fetters to the correction of the fool; ²³Till an arrow strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. ²⁴Now therefore, mysons, hearken unto me, and attend to the words of my mouth. ²⁵Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. ²⁶For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, all her slain are a mighty host. ²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.