7:1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
7:2 Keep my commandments and live, and my teaching as the apple of thine eye.
7:3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thy heart.
7:4 Say unto wisdom: 'Thou art my sister', and call understanding thy kinswoman;
7:5 That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the alien woman that maketh smooth her words.
7:6 For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice;
7:7 And I beheld among the thoughtless ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
7:8 Passing through the street near her corner, and he went the way to her house;
7:9 In the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the blackness of night and the darkness.
7:10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot, and wily of heart.
7:11 She is riotous and rebellious, her feet abide not in her house;
7:12 Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lieth in wait at every corner.
7:13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face she said unto him:
7:14 'Sacrifices of peace-offerings were due from me; this day have I paid my vows.
7:15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
7:16 I have decked my couch with coverlets, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
7:17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
7:18 Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves.
7:19 For my husband is not at home, he is gone a long journey;
7:20 He hath taken the bag of money with him; he will come home at the full moon.'
7:21 With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield, with the blandishment of her lips she enticeth him away.
7:22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox that goeth to the slaughter, or as one in fetters to the correction of the fool;
7:23 Till an arrow strike through his liver; as a bird hasteneth to the snare-- and knoweth not that it is at the cost of his life.
7:24 Now therefore, O ye children, hearken unto me, and attend to the words of my mouth.
7:25 Let not thy heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
7:26 For she hath cast down many wounded; yea, a mighty host are all her slain.
7:27 Her house is the way to the nether-world, going down to the chambers of death.