Proverbs 7:6–27

⁶Once while I was at the window of my house

I looked out through the shutters

⁷and saw some foolish, young men.

I noticed one of them had no wisdom.

⁸He was walking down the street near the corner

on the road leading to her house.

⁹It was the twilight of the evening;

the darkness of the night was just beginning.

¹⁰Then the woman approached him,

dressed like a prostitute

and planning to trick him.

¹¹She was loud and stubborn

and never stayed at home.

¹²She was always out in the streets or in the city squares,

waiting around on the corners of the streets.

¹³She grabbed him and kissed him.

Without shame she said to him,

¹⁴“I made my fellowship offering and took some of the meat home.

Today I have kept my special promises.

¹⁵So I have come out to meet you;

I have been looking for you and have found you.

¹⁶I have covered my bed

with colored sheets from Egypt.

¹⁷I have made my bed smell sweet

with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let’s make love until morning.

Let’s enjoy each other’s love.

¹⁹My husband is not home;

he has gone on a long trip.

²⁰He took a lot of money with him

and won’t be home for weeks.”

²¹By her clever words she made him give in;

by her pleasing words she led him into doing wrong.

²²All at once he followed her,

like an ox led to the butcher,

like a deer caught in a trap

²³and shot through the liver with an arrow.

Like a bird caught in a trap,

he didn’t know what he did would kill him.

²⁴Now, my sons, listen to me;

pay attention to what I say.

²⁵Don’t let yourself be tricked by such a woman;

don’t go where she leads you.

²⁶She has ruined many good men,

and many have died because of her.

²⁷Her house is on the road to death,

the road that leads down to the grave.