Proverbs 7

Proverbs 7

The False Attractions of Adultery

1My child, keep my words[#Prov 2.1]

and store up my commandments with you;

2keep my commandments and live;[#Deut 32.10; Prov 4.4]

keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;

3bind them on your fingers;[#Deut 6.8; Prov 3.3]

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

5that they may keep you from the loose woman,[#Prov 2.16; 5.3; 6.24; #7.5 Heb strange woman]

from the adulteress with her smooth words.

6For at the window of my house

I looked out through my lattice,

7and I saw among the simple ones,[#Prov 1.22; 6.32]

I observed among the youths,

a young man without sense,

8passing along the street near her corner,[#vv 12, 27]

taking the road to her house

9in the twilight, in the evening,[#Job 24.15]

at the time of night and darkness.

10Then a woman comes toward him

decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.

11She is loud and wayward;[#Prov 9.13; 1 Tim 5.13]

her feet do not stay at home;

12now in the street, now in the squares,[#Prov 23.28]

and at every corner she lies in wait.

13She seizes him and kisses him,

and with impudent face she says to him:

14“I had to offer sacrifices,[#Lev 7.11, 16]

and today I have paid my vows;

15so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

16I have decked my couch with coverings,[#Prov 31.22; Isa 19.9]

colored spreads of Egyptian linen;

17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

18Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

19For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

20He took a bag of money with him;

he will not come home until full moon.”

21With much seductive speech she persuades him;[#Prov 5.3]

with her smooth talk she compels him.

22Right away he follows her

and goes like an ox to the slaughter

or bounds like a stag toward the trap

23until an arrow pierces its entrails.[#Eccl 9.12]

He is like a bird rushing into a snare,

not knowing that it will cost him his life.

24And now, my children, listen to me,[#Prov 5.7]

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.

25Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;[#Prov 5.8]

do not stray into her paths.

26For many are those she has laid low,[#Prov 9.18]

and numerous are her victims.

27Her house is the way to Sheol,[#Prov 2.18; 5.5; 9.18]

going down to the chambers of death.

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition, copyright © 2021 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Published by: National Council of the Churches of Christ