1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers. Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.
4 Say to wisdom, Thou are my sister, and call understanding [thy] kinswoman,
5 that they may keep thee from the interloping woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words.
6 For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice,
7 and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding
8 passing through the street near her corner. And 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 And, behold, there met him a woman attired like a harlot, and wily of heart.
11 She is loud and headstrong. Her feet abide not in her house.
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lays in wait 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. I have paid my vows this day.
15 Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
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 us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with love.
19 For the man is not at home. He has gone a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.
21 With her much fair speech she causes him to yield. With the flattering of her lips she forces him along.
22 He goes after her straightaway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
23 till an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare. And he does not know that it is for his life.
24 Now therefore, ye sons, hearken to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thy heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths.
26 For she has cast down many wounded. Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.