^[1]  My son, keep my words, And lay up my commandments with thee.

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^[2]  Keep my commandments and live; And my law as the apple of thine eye.

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^[3]  Bind them upon thy fingers; Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.

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^[4]  Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; And call understandingthy kinswoman:

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^[5]  That they may keep thee from the strange woman, From the foreigner that flattereth with her words.

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^[6]  For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice;

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^[7]  And I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, A young man void of understanding,

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^[8]  Passing through the street near her corner; And he went the way to her house,

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^[9]  In the twilight, in the evening of the day, In the middle of the night and in the darkness.

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^[10]  And, behold, there met him a woman With the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart.

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^[11]  (She is clamorous and wilful; Her feet abide not in her house:

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^[12]  Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, And lieth in wait at every corner.)

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^[13]  So she caught him, and kissed him, Andwith an impudent face she said unto him:

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^[14]  Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me; This day have I paid my vows.

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^[15]  Therefore came I forth to meet thee, Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.

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^[16]  I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.

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^[17]  I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

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^[18]  Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; Let us solace ourselves with loves.

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^[19]  For the man is not at home; He is gone a long journey:

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^[20]  He hath taken a bag of money with him; He will come home at the full moon.

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^[21]  With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along.

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^[22]  He goeth after her straightway, As an ox goeth to the slaughter, Or asone infetters to the correction of the fool;

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^[23]  Till an arrow strike through his liver; As a bird hasteth to the snare, And knoweth not that it is for his life.

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^[24]  Now therefore, mysons, hearken unto me, And attend to the words of my mouth.

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^[25]  Let not thy heart decline to her ways; Go not astray in her paths.

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^[26]  For she hath cast down many wounded: Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.

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^[27]  Her house is the way to Sheol, Going down to the chambers of death.

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