[7:1] My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
[7:2] keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
[7:3] bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
[7:4] Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call insight your intimate friend,
[7:5] to keep you from the forbidden woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
[7:6] For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
[7:7] and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man lacking sense,
[7:8] passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
[7:9] in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
[7:10] And behold, the woman meets him, dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
[7:11] She is loud and wayward; her feet do not stay at home;
[7:12] now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
[7:13] She seizes him and kisses him, and with bold face she says to him,
[7:14] “I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
[7:15] so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
[7:16] I have spread my couch with coverings, colored linens from Egyptian linen;
[7:17] I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[7:18] Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.
[7:19] For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;
[7:20] he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home.”
[7:21] With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
[7:22] All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
[7:23] till an arrow pierces its liver; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.
[7:24] And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
[7:25] Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths,
[7:26] for many a victim has she laid low, and all her slain are a mighty throng.
[7:27] Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.