1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.2 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.3 Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the tablet of thine heart.4 Say unto wisdom, Thou [art] my sister, and call understanding [thy] kinswoman:5 That they may keep thee from the woman belonging to someone else, from the stranger [who] flatters with her words.6 For at the window of my house I looked through my casement7 and beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,8 passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,9 in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night;10 and, behold, a woman met him [with] the attire of a harlot, and subtil of heart.11 (She [is] loud and stubborn; her feet do not abide in her house:12 Now without, now in the streets, [she] lies in wait at every corner.)13 So she caught him and kissed him [and] with an impudent face said unto him,14 I had promised sacrifices of peace; today I have payed my vows.15 Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved [works], with fine linen of Egypt.17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves.19 For the husband [is] not at home; he is gone a long journey:20 He has taken a bag of money with him [and] will come home at the [appointed] feast day.21 With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she persuaded him.22 He went after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,23 until the arrow pierces through his liver. [He is] as a bird struggling in the snare and not knowing that it [is] against his own life.24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye sons, and attend to the words of my mouth.25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways; do not go astray in her paths.26 For she has caused many to fall down dead; [yea], all the strong [men] have been slain by her.27 Her house [is] the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.: