- 1
- My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
- 2
- Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of thine eye.
- 3
- Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thy heart.
- 4
- Say unto wisdom: "Thou art my sister", and call understanding thy kinswoman;
- 5
- That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words.
- 6
- For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice;
- 7
- And I beheld among the thoughtless 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 blackness of night and the darkness.
- 10
- And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart.
- 11
- She is riotous and rebellious, her feet abide not in her house;
- 12
- Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner.
- 13
- So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face she said unto him:
- 14
- "Sacrifices of peace-offerings were due from me;
this day have I paid my vows.
- 15
- Therefore came I forth to meet thee, to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
- 16
- I have decked my couch with coverlets, 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 loves.
- 19
- For my husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey;
- 20
- He hath taken the bag of money with him;
he will come home at the full moon."
- 21
- With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the blandishment of her lips she enticeth him away.
- 22
- He goeth after her straightway, as an ox that goeth to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the correction of the fool;
- 23
- Till an arrow strike through his liver;
as a bird hasteneth to the snare - and knoweth not that it is at the cost of his life.
- 24
- Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto 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 hath cast down many wounded;
yea, a mighty host are all her slain.
- 27
- Her house is the way to the nether-world, going down to the chambers of death.
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