| 1 | My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee. |
| 2 | Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye. |
| 3 | Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart. |
| 4 | Say to wisdom, 'My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, 'Kinswoman!' |
| 5 | To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings. |
| 6 | For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out, |
| 7 | And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding, |
| 8 | Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step, |
| 9 | In the twilight—in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness. |
| 10 | And, lo, a woman to meet him— (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart, |
| 11 | Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not. |
| 12 | Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) -- |
| 13 | And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him, |
| 14 | 'Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, To-day I have completed my vows. |
| 15 | Therefore I have come forth to meet thee, To seek earnestly thy face, and I find thee. |
| 16 | [With] ornamental coverings I decked my couch, Carved works —cotton of Egypt. |
| 17 | I sprinkled my bed—myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. |
| 18 | Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves. |
| 19 | For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey. |
| 20 | A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.' |
| 21 | She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him. |
| 22 | He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool, |
| 23 | Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life. |
| 24 | And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth. |
| 25 | Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths, |
| 26 | For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones. |
| 27 | The ways of Sheol—her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death! |