⁶ From a window in my house I looked through my screen.
⁷ I was looking at gullible people
    when I saw a young man without much sense among youths.
⁸ He was crossing a street near her corner
    and walking toward her house
⁹ in the twilight,
    in the evening,
        in the dark hours of the night.

¹⁰ A woman with an ulterior motive meets him.
    She is dressed as a prostitute.
¹¹ She is loud and rebellious.
    Her feet will not stay at home.
¹² One moment she is out on the street,
    the next she is at the curb,
        on the prowl at every corner.
¹³ She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him,
¹⁴ “I have some sacrificial meat.
    Today I kept my vows.
¹⁵ That’s why I came to meet you.
    Eagerly, I looked for you,
        and I’ve found you.
¹⁶ I’ve made my bed,
    with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.
¹⁷ I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning.
    Let’s enjoy making love,
¹⁹ because my husband’s not home.
    He has gone on a long trip.
²⁰ He took lots of money with him.
    He won’t be home for a couple of weeks.”

²¹ With all her seductive charms, she persuades him.
    With her smooth lips, she makes him give in.
²² He immediately follows her
    like a steer on its way to be slaughtered,
        like a ram hobbling into captivity^[a]
23 until an arrow pierces his heart,
    like a bird darting into a trap.
    He does not realize that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ Now, sons,
    listen to me.
    Pay attention to the words from my mouth.
²⁵ Do not let your heart be turned to her ways.
    Do not wander onto her paths,
²⁶ because she has brought down many victims,
    and she has killed all too many.
²⁷ Her home is the way to hell
    and leads to the darkest vaults of death.