Proverbs - Chapter 7 - A Conservative Version
- 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 tablet of thy heart.
- Say to wisdom, Thou are my sister, and call understanding [thy] kinswoman,
- that they may keep thee from the interloping woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words.
- For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice,
- and I 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 of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
- And, behold, there met him a woman attired like a harlot, and wily of heart.
- She is loud and headstrong. Her feet abide not in her house.
- Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lays in wait at every corner.
- So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him,
- Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me. I have paid my vows this day.
- Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
- I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn 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 love.
- For the man is not at home. He has gone a long journey.
- He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.
- With her much fair speech she causes him to yield. With the flattering of her lips she forces him along.
- He goes after her straightaway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,
- till an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare. And he does not know that it is for his life.
- Now therefore, ye sons, hearken to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.
- Let not thy heart decline to her ways. Go not astray in her paths.
- For she has cast down many wounded. Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
- Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.