Proverbs 7 / 31
- 1
(Warning Against the Adulteress)
My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
- 2
keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
- 3
bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
- 4
Say to wisdom, "You are my sister,"
and call insight your intimate friend,
- 5
to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteressHebrew the foreign woman with her smooth words.
- 6
For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,
- 7
and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
- 8
passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
- 9
in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.
- 10
And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
- 11
She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
- 12
now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
- 13
She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
- 14
"I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
- 15
so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
- 16
I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
- 17
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
- 18
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
- 19
For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;
- 20
he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home."
- 21
With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
- 22
All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
- 23
till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.
- 24
And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
- 25
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,
- 26
for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
- 27
Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.