^[1]  My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with you.

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

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^[3]  Bind them on your fingers, write them on the table of your heart.

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^[4]  Say to wisdom, You are my sister; and call understanding your kinswoman:

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^[5]  That they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger which flatters with her words. ¶

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^[6]  For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

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^[7]  And 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, in the black and dark night:

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^[10]  And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtle of heart.

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^[11]  (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

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^[12]  Now is she without, now in the streets, and lies in wait at every corner.)

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^[13]  So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said to him,

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^[14]  I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.

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^[15]  Therefore came I forth to meet you, diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.

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^[16]  I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen 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 manager is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

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^[20]  He has taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.

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^[21]  With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

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^[22]  He goes after her straightway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

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^[23]  Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hastens to the snare, and knows not that it is for his life. ¶

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^[24]  Listen to me now therefore, O you children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

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^[25]  Let not your heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.

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^[26]  For she has cast down many wounded: yes, many strong men have been slain by her.

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

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