1* My son, keep my words,

and treasure my commands.

2Keep my commands and live,*

and my teaching as the apple of your eye;

3Bind them on your fingers,

write them on the tablet of your heart.a

4Say to Wisdom, “You are my sister!”*

Call Understanding, “Friend!”

5That they may keep you from a stranger,

from the foreign woman with her smooth words.b

6For at the window of my house,

through my lattice I looked out*

7And I saw among the naive,

I observed among the young men,

a youth with no sense,

8Crossing the street near the corner,

then walking toward her house,

9In the twilight, at dusk of day,

in the very dark of night.

10Then the woman comes to meet him,

dressed like a harlot, with secret designs.

11She is raucous and unruly,

her feet cannot stay at home;

12Now she is in the streets, now in the open squares,

lurking in ambush at every corner.

13Then she grabs him, kisses him,

and with an impudent look says to him:

14“I owed peace offerings,

and today I have fulfilled my vows;

15So I came out to meet you,

to look for you, and I have found you!

16With coverlets I have spread my couch,

with brocaded cloths of Egyptian linen;

17I have sprinkled my bed* with myrrh,

with aloes, and with cinnamon.

18Come, let us drink our fill of love,

until morning, let us feast on love!

19For my husband is not at home,*

he has gone on a long journey;

20A bag of money he took with him,

he will not return home till the full moon.”

21She wins him over by repeated urging,

with her smooth lips she leads him astray.* c

22He follows her impulsively,

like an ox that goes to slaughter;

Like a stag that bounds toward the net,

23till an arrow pierces its liver;

Like a bird that rushes into a snare,

unaware that his life is at stake.

24So now, children, listen to me,*

be attentive to the words of my mouth!

25Do not let your heart turn to her ways,

do not go astray in her paths;

26For many are those she has struck down dead,

numerous, those she has slain.

27Her house is a highway to Sheol,

leading down into the chambers of death.d