Admonition to Avoid the Wiles of the Adulteress
7:1 My child, keep my words
and treasure up my commands in your own keeping.
7:2 Keep my commands so that you may live,
and obey my instruction as your most prized possession.
7:3 Bind them on your forearm;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
7:4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call understanding a close relative,
7:5 so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman,
from the loose woman who flatters you with her words.

7:6 For at the window of my house
through my window lattice I looked out
7:7 and I saw among the naive –
I discerned among the youths –
a young man who lacked wisdom.
7:8 He was passing by the street near her corner,
making his way along the road to her house
7:9 in the twilight, the evening,
in the dark of the night.
7:10 Suddenly a woman came out to meet him!
She was dressed like a prostitute and with secret intent.
7:11 (She is loud and rebellious,
she does not remain at home –
7:12 at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas,
and by every corner she lies in wait.)
7:13 So she grabbed him and kissed him,
and with a bold expression she said to him,
7:14 “I have fresh meat at home;
today I have fulfilled my vows!
7:15 That is why I came out to meet you,
to look for you, and I found you!
7:16 I have spread my bed with elegant coverings,
with richly colored fabric from Egypt.
7:17 I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
7:18 Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning,
let’s delight ourselves with sexual intercourse.
7:19 For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a journey of some distance.
7:20 He has taken a bag of money with him;
he will not return until the end of the month.”
7:21 She persuaded him with persuasive words;
with her smooth talk she compelled him.
7:22 Suddenly he went after her
like an ox that goes to the slaughter,
like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare
7:23 till an arrow pierces his liver –
like a bird hurrying into a trap,
and he does not know that it will cost him his life.

7:24 So now, sons, listen to me,
and pay attention to the words I speak.
7:25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways –
do not wander into her pathways;
7:26 for she has brought down many fatally wounded,
and all those she has slain are many.
7:27 Her house is the way to the grave,
going down to the chambers of death.

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