| My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. | |
| Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye. | |
| Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart. | |
| Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman: | |
| That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. | |
| For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, | |
| And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, | |
| Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house, | |
| In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night: | |
| And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart. | |
| (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house: | |
| Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.) | |
| So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him, | |
| I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows. | |
| Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. | |
| I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt. | |
| I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. | |
| Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves. | |
| For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey: | |
| He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed. | |
| With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him. | |
| He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; | |
| Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. | |
| Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth. | |
| Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths. | |
| For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her. | |
| Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death. |