| 1 | My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you. |
| 2 | Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes; |
| 3 | Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart. |
| 4 | Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend: |
| 5 | So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth. |
| 6 | Looking out from my house, and watching through the window, |
| 7 | I saw among the young men one without sense, |
| 8 | Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house, |
| 9 | At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night. |
| 10 | And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart; |
| 11 | She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house. |
| 12 | Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road. |
| 13 | So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him: |
| 14 | I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected. |
| 15 | So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you. |
| 16 | My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt; |
| 17 | I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices. |
| 18 | Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love's delights. |
| 19 | For the master of the house is away on a long journey: |
| 20 | He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon. |
| 21 | With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips. |
| 22 | The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord; |
| 23 | Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side. |
| 24 | So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth; |
| 25 | Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps. |
| 26 | For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army. |
| 27 | Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to the rooms of death. |