Proverbs 7

¹My son keep my words, and my precepts hide with thee. Son,

²keep my commandments, and thou shalt live: and my law as the apple of thine eye:

³bind it on thy fingers, write it in the tables of thy heart.

⁴Say to wisdom, thou art my sister: & call prudence thy friend,

⁵that she may keep thee from the strange woman, and from the foreigner which maketh her words sweet.

⁶For out of the window of my house I looked out through the lattice,

⁷and I see little ones, I behold a foolish youngman,

⁸which passeth through the streets by the corner, and goeth nigh the way of her house,

⁹in the dark the day being toward evening, in the darkness of the night, and dimness.

¹⁰And behold the woman meeteth him in harlot's attire, prepared to deceive souls: babbling and wandering,

¹¹impatient of rest, nor able to consist in the house on her feet,

¹²now abroad, now in the streets, now lying in wait near the corners.

¹³And taking the youngman she kisseth him, and with malapert countenance speaketh fair, saying:

¹⁴I vowed victims for welfare, this day I have payed my vows.

¹⁵Therefore I am come forth to meet thee, desirous to see, and I have found thee.

¹⁶I have woven my bed with cords, I have adorned it with tapestry pictured out of Ægypt.

¹⁷I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸Come let us be inebriated with breasts, and let us enjoy desired embracings, till the day appear.

¹⁹For my husband is not at home, he is gone a very long journey.

²⁰he carried with him a bag of money: in the day of the full moon he will return to his house.

²¹She entangled him with many words, and with flattery of lips drew him.

²²Immediately he followeth her as an oxe led to be a victim, & as a lamb playing the wanton, and not knowing that he is drawn as a fool to bonds,

²³till the arrow pierce his liver: as if a bird should make haste to the snare, and knoweth not that his life is in danger.

²⁴Now therefore my son, hear me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

²⁵Let not thy mind be drawn away in her ways: neither be thou deceived with her paths.

²⁶For she hath cast down many wounded, and all the most strong are slain by her.

²⁷Her house the ways of hell, penetrating to the inner parts of the death.