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¹ My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.² Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.³ Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.⁴ Say to wisdom, `My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, `Kinswoman!'⁵ To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.

⁶ For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,⁷ And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,⁸ Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,⁹ In the twilight -- in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.¹⁰ And, lo, a woman to meet him -- (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart,¹¹ Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.¹² Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) --¹³ And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him,¹⁴ `Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, To-day I have completed my vows.¹⁵ Therefore I have come forth to meet thee, To seek earnestly thy face, and I find thee.¹⁶ [With] ornamental coverings I decked my couch, Carved works -- cotton of Egypt.¹⁷ I sprinkled my bed -- myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.¹⁸ Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.¹⁹ For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey.²⁰ A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.'²¹ She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.²² He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool,²³ Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life.

²⁴ And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.²⁵ Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths,²⁶ For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.²⁷ The ways of Sheol -- her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death!