Proverbs 7

My son, keep my words
And treasure my commandments within you.

^1-5 Dear friend, do what I tell you;
    treasure my careful instructions.
Do what I say and you’ll live well.
    My teaching is as precious as your eyesight—guard it!
Write it out on the back of your hands;
    etch it on the chambers of your heart.
Talk to Wisdom as to a sister.
    Treat Insight as your companion.
They’ll be with you to fend off the Temptress—
    that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.

Keep my commandments and live,
And my ^[a]teaching as the ^[b]apple of your eye.

Bind them on your fingers;
Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your intimate friend;

That they may keep you from an ^[c]adulteress,
From the foreigner who ^[d]flatters with her words.

For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,

As I stood at the window of my house
    looking out through the shutters,
Watching the mindless crowd stroll by,
    I spotted a young man without any sense
Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived,
    then turning up the path to her house.
It was dusk, the evening coming on,
    the darkness thickening into night.
Just then, a woman met him—
    she’d been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
Brazen and brash she was,
    restless and roaming, never at home,
Walking the streets, loitering in the mall,
    hanging out at every corner in town.

And I saw among the ^[e]naive,
And discerned among the ^[f]youths
A young man lacking ^[g]sense,

Passing through the street near her corner;
And he ^[h]takes the way to her house,

In the twilight, in the ^[i]evening,
In the ^[j]middle of the night and in the darkness.

And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.

She is boisterous and rebellious,
Her feet do not remain at home;

She is now in the streets, now in the squares,
And lurks by every corner.

So she seizes him and kisses him
^[k]And with a brazen face she says to him:

She threw her arms around him and kissed him,
    boldly took his arm and said,
“I’ve got all the makings for a feast—
    today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
So now I’ve come to find you,
    hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are!
I’ve spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed,
    colorful imported linens.
My bed is aromatic with spices
    and exotic fragrances.
Come, let’s make love all night,
    spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
My husband’s not home; he’s away on business,
    and he won’t be back for a month.”

“^[l]I was due to offer peace offerings;
Today I have paid my vows.

“Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your presence earnestly, and I have found you.

“I have spread my couch with coverings,
With colored linens of Egypt.

“I have sprinkled my bed
With myrrh, aloes and cinnamon.

“Come, let us drink our fill of love until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with caresses.

“For ^[m]my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a long journey;

He has taken a bag of money ^[n]with him,
At the full moon he will come home.”

With her many persuasions she entices him;
With her ^[o]flattering lips she seduces him.

Soon she has him eating out of her hand,
    bewitched by her honeyed speech.
Before you know it, he’s trotting behind her,
    like a calf led to the butcher shop,
Like a stag lured into ambush
    and then shot with an arrow,
Like a bird flying into a net
    not knowing that its flying life is over.

Suddenly he follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as ^[p]one in fetters to the discipline of a fool,

Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a bird hastens to the snare,
So he does not know that it will cost him his life.

Now therefore, my sons, listen to me,
And pay attention to the words of my mouth.

So, friends, listen to me,
    take these words of mine most seriously.
Don’t fool around with a woman like that;
    don’t even stroll through her neighborhood.
Countless victims come under her spell;
    she’s the death of many a poor man.
She runs a halfway house to hell,
    fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.