001 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
002 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
003 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
004 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
005 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
006 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
007 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
008 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
009 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
010 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart.
011 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
012 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
013 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
014 I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
015 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
016 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
017 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
018 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
019 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
020 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
021 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
022 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
023 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
024 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
025 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
026 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
027 Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.