✧My son, keep my words, And lay up my commandments with thee. ✧2Keep my commandments and live; And my law as the apple of thine eye. ✧3Bind them upon thy fingers; Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. ✧4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; And call understanding [thy] kinswoman: ✧5That they may keep thee from the strange woman, From the foreigner that flattereth with her words. ✧6For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice; ✧7And I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, A young man void of understanding, ✧8Passing through the street near her corner; And he went the way to her house, ✧9In the twilight, in the evening of the day, In the middle of the night and in the darkness. ✧10And, behold, there met him a woman With the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart. ✧11(She is clamorous and wilful; Her feet abide not in her house: ✧12Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, And lieth in wait at every corner.) ✧13So she caught him, and kissed him, [And] with an impudent face she said unto him: ✧14Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me; This day have I paid my vows. ✧15Therefore came I forth to meet thee, Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. ✧16I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. ✧17I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ✧18Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; Let us solace ourselves with loves. ✧19For the man is not at home; He is gone a long journey: ✧20He hath taken a bag of money with him; He will come home at the full moon. ✧21With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield; With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along. ✧22He goeth after her straightway, As an ox goeth to the slaughter, Or as [one in] fetters to the correction of the fool; ✧23Till an arrow strike through his liver; As a bird hasteth to the snare, And knoweth not that it is for his life. ✧24Now therefore, [my] sons, hearken unto me, And attend to the words of my mouth. ✧25Let not thy heart decline to her ways; Go not astray in her paths. ✧26For she hath cast down many wounded: Yea, all her slain are a mighty host. ✧27Her house is the way to Sheol, Going down to the chambers of death.