1 My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments within you.

2 Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the pupil of your eye.

3 Tie them upon your fingers; write them upon the tablet of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister, and call understanding your kinsman,

5 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who makes smooth her words.

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

7 and I saw among the simple ones, I observed among the children a young man lacking heart,

8 passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the darkness of night.

10 And behold, a woman came to meet him, with the attire of a harlot, and a heart of secrecy.

11 (She is boisterous and stubborn; her feet do not settle down in her own house.

12 At one moment she is outside, the next in the streets, and she lies in wait at every corner.)

13 So she has seized him and kissed him; and with straight face says to him,

14 Regarding my peace offerings, today I have completed my vows;

15 therefore I came out to meet you, earnestly to seek your face, and I have found you.

16 I have spread my bed with coverings, with striped cloths of linen from Egypt.

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

18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us delight ourselves with lovemaking.

19 For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

20 He has taken in hand a bag of money, and will come home on the day of the full moon.

21 With great persuasion she influences him; with her seductive lips she moves him.

22 In an instant he goes after her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool goes to correction in fetters;

23 till an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare; and does not realize that it is for his soul.

24 Now then, listen to me, O sons, and pay attention to the words of my mouth:

25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not go astray in her paths.

26 For many are the wounded she has caused to fall, and countless are the ones slain by her.

27 Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.