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[1]My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.
[2]Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.
[3]Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.
[4]Say to wisdom, `My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, `Kinswoman!'
[5]To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.
[6]For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,
[7]And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,
[8]Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,
[9]In the twilight -- in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.
[10]And, lo, a woman to meet him -- (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart,
[11]Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.
[12]Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) --
[13]And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him,
[14]`Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, To-day I have completed my vows.
[15]Therefore I have come forth to meet thee, To seek earnestly thy face, and I find thee.
[16][With] ornamental coverings I decked my couch, Carved works -- cotton of Egypt.
[17]I sprinkled my bed -- myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[18]Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.
[19]For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey.
[20]A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.'
[21]She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.
[22]He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool,
[23]Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life.
[24]And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.
[25]Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths,
[26]For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.
[27]The ways of Sheol -- her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death!
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