Proverbs 7

1 “My son, keep my words and hide my commands within yourself. My son, honor the Lord, and you will be strong; fear no one but him.

2 Keep my commands, and you will live; guard my words like the pupils of your eyes.

3 Bind them on your fingers and write them across your heart.

4 Say that Wisdom is your sister, and make discernment your close acquaintance,

5 so that she may guard you from a foreign and evil woman if that woman attacks you with flattering words.

6 From a window of her house, she leans out toward the streets.

7 Among the foolish children she sees a young man lacking good sense,

8 passing a corner along the roads near her house

9 and talking in the evening darkness, when the night is still and gloomy.

10 The woman meets him with the appearance of a prostitute, which makes the hearts of young men flutter.

11 She is excitable and reckless, and her feet do not rest at home.

12 At one time she wanders outside; at another she lies in wait in the streets at every corner.

13 Then she grabs and kisses him and speaks to him with a shameless face.”

14 “I have a peaceable offering; today I am fulfilling my vows.

15 That is why I came out to meet you. I longed for your face, and I found you.

16 I have stretched sheets over my bed and spread double-woven cloth from Egypt.

17 I have sprinkled my bed with saffron and my house with cinnamon.

18 Come, let us enjoy love until morning; come, let us roll together in desire.

19 My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.

20 He took a bundle of silver in his hand and will not return home for many days.”

21 “With much conversation she leads him astray and drives him off course with the traps of her lips.

22 Dazed, he follows her like an ox led to slaughter and like a dog led to chains,

23 or like a deer struck in the liver by an arrow. He hurries like a bird into a trap, not knowing that he is running for his life.

24 Now then, my son, listen to me and pay attention to the words of my mouth.

25 Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways.

26 She has wounded and brought down many, and those she has killed are beyond number.

27 Her house holds roads to Hades, leading down to the chambers of death.”