Warnings about the Adulteress

1My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.

2Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.

3Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.

4Say to wisdom, ‘My sister Thou [art].’ And cry to understanding, ‘Kinswoman!’

5To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.

6For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,

7And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,

8Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,

9In the twilight — in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.

10And, lo, a woman to meet him — (A harlot’s dress, and watchful of heart,

11Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.

12Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) —

13And 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.

15Therefore 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.

17I sprinkled my bed — myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.

19For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey.

20A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.’

21She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.

22He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool,

23Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life.

24And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.

25Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths,

26For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.

27The ways of Sheol — her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death!