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