¹My son , keep my words.

Lay up my commandments within you .

²Keep my commandments and live !

Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye .

³Bind them on your fingers.

Write them on the tablet of your heart .

⁴Tell wisdom , “You are my sister.”

Call understanding your relative,

⁵that they may keep you from the strange woman ,

from the foreigner who flatters with her words.

⁶For at the window of my house ,

I looked out through my lattice.

⁷I saw among the simple ones .

I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding ,

⁸passing through the street near her corner ,

he went the way to her house ,

⁹in the twilight , in the evening of the day ,

in the middle of the night and in the darkness.

¹⁰Behold , there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute ,

and with crafty intent.

¹¹She is loud and defiant.

Her feet don’t stay in her house .

¹²Now she is in the streets , now in the squares ,

and lurking at every corner .

¹³So she caught him , and kissed him .

With an impudent face she said to him :

¹⁴“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me .

Today I have paid my vows .

¹⁵Therefore I came out to meet you ,

to diligently seek your face ,

and I have found you .

¹⁶I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry ,

with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt .

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh , aloes, and cinnamon .

¹⁸Come , let ’s take our fill of loving until the morning .

Let ’s solace ourselves with loving.

¹⁹For my husband isn’t at home .

He has gone on a long journey .

²⁰He has taken a bag of money with him .

He will come home at the full moon .”

²¹With persuasive words , she led him astray .

With the flattering of her lips , she seduced him .

²²He followed her immediately ,

as an ox goes to the slaughter ,

as a fool stepping into a noose.

²³Until an arrow strikes through his liver ,

as a bird hurries to the snare ,

and doesn’t know that it will cost his life .

²⁴Now therefore , sons , listen to me .

Pay attention to the words of my mouth .

²⁵Don’t let your heart turn to her ways .

Don’t go astray in her paths ,

²⁶for she has thrown down many wounded .

Yes , all her slain are a mighty army.

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol ,[#7:27 Sheol is the place of the dead.]

going down to the rooms of death .