1 MY son, keep my words and hide my commandments within you.

2 Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the pupil of your eye.

3 Bind them about your neck; write them upon the tablets of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister; and to understanding, You are my counselor

5 That they may keep you from the strange woman, from the stranger that flatters with her words.

6 For from the window of her house and from the balcony she looked out,

7 And she beheld young men, she spied among the youths, and those who lacked understanding,

8 Passing through the street near the corner of her house,

9 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night;

10 And, behold, there came out a woman with the attire of a harlot to meet one of them, a woman who fluttered the hearts of young men.

11 She is rebellious and gluttonous; her feet do not abide in her house;

12 But she roams around outside, now in the streets, and now lying in wait at the corners.

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

14 This day I have paid my vows, I have peace offerings with me;

15 Therefore I came out to meet you, for I have been waiting to see you, and now I have found you.

16 I have made my bed upon a carpet; I have covered it 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 embrace each other with passion.

19 For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a long journey:

20 He has taken a bag of money with him, and it will be a long time before he comes home.

21 With much fair speech she misled him, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

22 He went after her as a little child, as an ox that goes to the slaughter, and as a dog to be muzzled;

23 And as a stag whose liver is pierced with an arrow, as a bird hastens to the snare, and does not know that he goes to his death.

24 Now therefore, O my children, hearken to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.

25 Let not your heart incline to her ways, do not go astray in her paths.

26 For she has cast down many wounded; yea, many mighty men have been slain by her.

27 The ways to her house are the ways to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.