| 1 My son, keep my words and remain faithful to my commands. | |
| 2 Hold fast to my instruction and you will have life; treasure my teachings as the apple of your eye. | |
| 3 Bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablets of your heart. | |
| 4 Let wisdom be your sister and knowledge your friend, | |
| 5 so that you will be saved from the adulterous woman, from the stranger with her enticing words. | |
| 6 From my window I was looking out through the lattice and | |
| 7 I saw among the young men, an inexperienced youth | |
| 8 who walked along the road near her corner, towards the path to her house. | |
| 9 It was dusk, daylight was fading – the time of darkness and shadow. | |
| 10 And look! Out comes this woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, covered with a veil. | |
| 11 She is brazen and shameless, unable to remain in the house. | |
| 12 Now at the corner, now in the square, she is on the lookout. | |
| 13 She throws herself at him, kisses him and confidently says, | |
| 14 “I have to offer sacrifices and terminate my vows; because of this | |
| 15 I came out to meet you. I sought and found you. | |
| 16 I have spread on my bed quilts and fine Egyptian sheets and | |
| 17 sprinkled it with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. | |
| 18 Come, let us abandon ourselves to pleasure and drink our fill of love all night, | |
| 19 for my husband is not at home but away on a long journey. | |
| 20 He has taken his moneybags and will not return before the full moon.” | |
| 21 She led him astray with such smooth and seductive words. | |
| 22 At once he followed her, as an ox led to slaughter or a deer caught in a snare | |
| 23 until its liver is pierced by an arrow; as a bird springs at the snare unaware that its life is at stake. | |
| 24 Now then, my sons, listen and pay attention to my words. | |
| 25 Do not be led astray or lose yourself on her paths. | |
| 26 For she has brought many to their death and the strongest were all her victims. | |
| 27 Her house leads to hell and death. | |
