Books of The Bible / Book of Proverbs
1 My child, keep my words, and treasure my precepts,
2 keep my precepts and you will live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3 Bind these to your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to Wisdom, ‘You are my sister!’ Call Understanding your relation,
5 to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.
6 While I was at the window of my house, I was looking out through the lattice
7 and I saw, among the callow youths, I noticed among the lads, one boy who had no sense.
8 Going along the lane, near the corner where she lives, he reaches the path to her house,
9 at twilight when day is declining, at dead of night and in the dark.
10 And look, a woman is coming to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, false of heart.
11 She is loud and brazen; her feet cannot rest at home.
12 Once in the street, once in the square, she lurks at every corner.
13 She catches hold of him, she kisses him, the bold-faced creature says to him,
14 ‘I had to offer a communion sacrifice, I have discharged my vows today;
15 that is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and now I have found you.
16 I have spread coverlets over my divan, embroidered stuff, Egyptian material,
17 I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come on, we’ll make love as much as we like, till morning. Let us enjoy the delights of love!
19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a very long journey,
20 taking his moneybags with him; he will not be back till the moon is full.’
21 With her persistent coaxing she overcomes him, lures him on with her wheedling patter.
22 Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,
23 until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.
24 And now, son, listen to me, pay attention to the words I have to say:
25 do not let your heart stray into her ways, or wander into her paths;
26 she has done so many to death, and the strongest have all been her victims.
27 Her house is the way to Sheol, the descent to the courts of death.