Proverbs 7:1–27

The False Attractions of Adultery

⁷My child, keep my words

and store up my commandments with you;^*

²keep my commandments and live;

keep my teachings as the apple^u of your eye;^*

³bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.^*

⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman,^v

from the adulteress^w with her smooth words.^*

⁶For at the window of my house

I looked out through my lattice,

⁷and I saw among the simple ones,

I observed among the youths,

a young man without sense,^*

⁸passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house^*

⁹in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.^*

¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him

decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.

¹¹She is loud and wayward;

her feet do not stay at home;^*

¹²now in the street, now in the squares,

and at every corner she lies in wait.^*

¹³She seizes him and kisses him,

and with impudent face she says to him:

¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices,

and today I have paid my vows;^*

¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings,

colored spreads of Egyptian linen;^*

¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

²⁰He took a bag of money with him;

he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;

with her smooth talk she compels him.^*

²²Right away he follows her

and goes like an ox to the slaughter

or bounds like a stag toward the trap^x

²³until an arrow pierces its entrails.

He is like a bird rushing into a snare,

not knowing that it will cost him his life.^*

²⁴And now, my children, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.^*

²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths.^*

²⁶For many are those she has laid low,

and numerous are her victims.^*

²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.^*