Proverbs 7
Warning Against the Adulteress
[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. (ESV)
