Proverbs 7

Warning Against the Strange Woman

1 My child, guard my sayings;

store my commandments with you.

2 Keep my commands and live,

and my teaching like the apple of your eye.*A single word meaning "pupil of the eye"

3 Bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom,*Hebrew "the wisdom" "you are my sister,"

and you shall call insight,*Hebrew "the insight" "intimate friend."*Literally "one who is known." To "know" is often a euphemism for intercourse. Therefore "intimate friend" may also be read "lover."

5 In order to guard yourself from an adulteress,*Literally "a strange woman"

from the foreigner who makes her words smooth.*Literally "causes to be smooth her words"

6 For at the window of my house,

through my lattice, I looked down.

7 And I saw among the simple,

I observed among the youth,

a young man lacking sense,*Literally "heart"

8 passing on the street at*Literally "at the place of" her corner,

and he takes the road to her house,

9 at twilight, at the day’s evening,

in the midst of night and the darkness.

10 Then behold! A woman comes to meet him

with the garment of a prostitute*Or "whore" and a secret heart.*Literally "secret of heart"

11 She is loud and stubborn;

her feet do not stay at her house.

12 Now in the street, now in the square,

at*Literally "at the place of" every corner she lies in wait.

13 She took hold of *Or "strengthened" him and kissed him.

Her face was impudent, and she said to him,

14 "Sacrifices of peace offerings are upon me;

today*Literally "the day" I completed my vows.

15 So*Hebrew "thus" I have come out to meet you,

to seek your face, and I have found you.

16 With coverings I have adorned my couch,

spreads of the linen of Egypt;

17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

18 Come, let us take our fill of love making,

until the morning let us delight in love.

19 For there is no man*Or "husband" in his home;

he has gone on a long journey.*Literally "a journey from far"

20 The bag of money he took in his hand,

for on the day of the full moon he will come home."

21 She persuades him with the greatness of her teachings;

with her smooth lips she compels him.

22 He goes after her suddenly;

like an ox to the slaughter he goes,

and like a stag to the instruction of a fool,

23 until an arrow pierces his entrails,*Literally "heaviness," often referring to the liver

like a bird rushing into a snare,

but he does not know that it will cost him his life.*Literally "it is against his life"

Reiteration of the Warning Against a Strange Woman

24 And now, my children, listen to me,

and be attentive to the sayings of my mouth.

25 May your heart not turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her path.

26 For many slain she has laid low,

and countless*Or "strong men" are all of her killings.

27 The ways of Sheol*A term for the place where the dead reside, i.e., the Underworld are her house,

descending to chambers of death.