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¹ My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;² keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;³ bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.⁴ Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," and call insight your intimate friend;⁵ to preserve you from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.

⁶ For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,⁷ and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man without sense,⁸ passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house⁹ in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.¹⁰ And lo, a woman meets him, dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.¹¹ She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home;¹² now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.¹³ She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:¹⁴ "I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;¹⁵ so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.¹⁶ I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love till morning; let us delight ourselves with love.¹⁹ For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey;²⁰ he took a bag of money with him; at full moon he will come home."²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.²² All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast²³ till an arrow pierces its entrails; as a bird rushes into a snare; he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.²⁵ Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;²⁶ for many a victim has she laid low; yea, all her slain are a mighty host.²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.