Proverbs - Chapter 7 | English Standard Version

  • 1. 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 adulteress 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.
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