[1] My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
[2] keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
[3] bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
[4] Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,
[5] to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
[6] For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
[7] and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense,
[8] passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
[9] in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
[10] And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
[11] She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;
[12] now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
[13] She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him,
[14] “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
[15] so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
[16] I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen;
[17] I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[18] Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
[19] For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
[20] he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.”
[21] With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
[22] All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
[23] till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
[24] And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
[25] Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths,
[26] for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.
[27] Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.