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[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.
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