|
[1]MY son, keep my words and hide my commandments within you.
[2]Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the pupil of your eye.
[3]Bind them about your neck; write them upon the tablets of your heart.
[4]Say to wisdom, You are my sister; and to understanding, You are my counselor
[5]That they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger that flatters with her words
[6]For from the window of her house and from the balcony she looked out,
[7]And she beheld young men, she spied among the youths, and those who lacked understanding,
[8]Passing through the street near the corner of her house,
[9]In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night;
[10]And, behold, there came out a woman with the attire of a harlot to meet one of them, a woman who fluttered the hearts of young men.
[11]She is rebellious and gluttonous; her feet do not abide in her house;
[12]But she roams around outside, now in the streets, and now lying in wait at the corners.
[13]So she caught him and kissed him, and, with an impudent face, said to him,
[14]This day I have paid my vows, I have peace offerings with me;
[15]Therefore I came out to meet you, for I have been waiting to see you, and now I have found you.
[16]I have made my bed upon a carpet; I have covered it 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 embrace each other with passion.
[19]For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey:
[20]He has taken a bag of money with him, and it will be a long time before he comes home.
[21]With much fair speech she misled him, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
[22]He went after her as a little child, as an ox that goes to the slaughter, and as a dog to be muzzled;
[23]And as a stag whose liver is pierced with an arrow, as a bird hastens to the snare, and does not know that he goes to his death
[24]Now therefore, O my children, hearken to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.
[25]Let not your heart incline to her ways, do not go astray in her paths.
[26]For she has cast down many wounded; yea, many mighty men have been slain by her.
[27]The ways to her house are the ways to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death
|