1My child, keep my words

and store up my commandments with you;*

2keep my commandments and live;

keep my teachings as the appleu of your eye;*

3bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart.*

4Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

and call insight your intimate friend,

5that they may keep you from the loose woman,v

from the adulteressw with her smooth words.*

6For at the window of my house

I looked out through my lattice,

7and I saw among the simple ones,

I observed among the youths,

a young man without sense,*

8passing along the street near her corner,

taking the road to her house*

9in the twilight, in the evening,

at the time of night and darkness.*

10Then a woman comes toward him

decked out like a prostitute, with hidden intent.

11She is loud and wayward;

her feet do not stay at home;*

12now in the street, now in the squares,

and at every corner she lies in wait.*

13She seizes him and kisses him,

and with impudent face she says to him:

14“I had to offer sacrifices,

and today I have paid my vows;*

15so now I have come out to meet you,

to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!

16I have decked my couch with coverings,

colored spreads of Egyptian linen;*

17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,

aloes, and cinnamon.

18Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;

let us delight ourselves with love.

19For my husband is not at home;

he has gone on a long journey.

20He took a bag of money with him;

he will not come home until full moon.”

21With much seductive speech she persuades him;

with her smooth talk she compels him.*

22Right away he follows her

and goes like an ox to the slaughter

or bounds like a stag toward the trapx

23until an arrow pierces its entrails.

He is like a bird rushing into a snare,

not knowing that it will cost him his life.*

24And now, my children, listen to me,

and be attentive to the words of my mouth.*

25Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;

do not stray into her paths.*

26For many are those she has laid low,

and numerous are her victims.*

27Her house is the way to Sheol,

going down to the chambers of death.*