[1] My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
[2] Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
[3] Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
[4] Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
[5] That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
[6] For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
[7] And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
[8] Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
[9] In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
[10] And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
[11] (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
[12] Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
[13] So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
[14] I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
[15] Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
[16] I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
[17] I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[18] Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
[19] For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
[20] He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
[21] With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
[22] He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
[23] Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
[24] Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
[25] Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
[26] For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
[27] Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.