My son, keep my words,{HR}And lay up my commandments with thee.
Keep my commandments and live;{HR}And my teaching as the apple of thine eye.
Bind them upon thy fingers;{HR}Write them upon the tables of thy heart.
Say to wisdom, thou [art] my sister,{HR}And call intelligence kinswoman;
That they may keep thee from the strange woman,{HR}From the stranger that flattereth with her words.
For at the window of my house I looked forth from my lattice;{HR}And I beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the sons,{HR}A young man void of understanding,
Passing through the street near her corner;{HR}And he went the way to her house,
In the twilight, in the evening of the day,{HR}In the blackness of night and the darkness.
And, behold, there met him a woman{HR}[In] the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.
She [is] clamorous and ungovernable;{HR}Her feet abide not in her house;
Now [she is] in the streets,{HR}Now in the broadways,{HR}And lieth in wait at every corner.
And she caught him and kissed him;{HR}With an impudent face she said to him,
I have peace-offerings;{HR}This day have I paid my vows.
Therefore came I forth to meet thee,{HR}Diligently to seek thy face;{HR}And I have found thee.
My bed I have decked with tapestry coverings,{HR}With variegated cloths of yarn from Egypt.
I have perfumed my couch with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us revel in love until the morning;{HR}Let us delight ourselves with loves.
For the husband [is] not at home{HR}And he is gone a long journey;
He hath taken the money-bag with him;{HR}He will come home at the day of full moon.
With her much fair speech she beguiled him;{HR}With the flattery of her lips she constrained him.
He goeth after suddenly, as an ox goeth to the slaughter,{HR}And as in fetters to his correction the fool;
Till an arrow strike through his liver,{HR}As a bird hasteth to the snare,{HR}And knoweth not that [it is] for its life.
And now, sons, hearken to me,{HR}And attend to the words of my mouth.
Let not thy heart decline to her ways;{HR}Go not astray in her paths:
For she hath cast down many wounded;{HR}And all slain by her are strong.
Her house [is] the way to Sheol,{HR}Going down to the chambers of death.