Proverbs 7  Common English Bible

7 My son, keep my words;
    store up my commands within you.
² Keep my commands and live,
    and my instruction like the pupil of your eye.
³ Bind them on your fingers;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴ Say to wisdom, “You are my sister”;
    call understanding “friend,”
⁵     so she might guard you against the mysterious woman,
        from the foreign woman who flatters you.
⁶ When from the window of my house,
    from behind the screen, I gazed down,
⁷ I looked among the naive young men
    and noticed among the youth, one who had no sense.
⁸ He was crossing the street at her corner
    and walked down the path to her house
⁹     in the early evening,
    at the onset of night and darkness.
¹⁰ All of a sudden a woman approaches him,
    dressed like a prostitute and with a cunning mind.
¹¹ She is noisy and defiant;
    her feet don’t stay long in her own house.
¹² She has one foot in the street, one foot in the public square.
    She lies in wait at every corner.
¹³ She grabs him and kisses him.
    Her face is brazen as she speaks to him:
¹⁴ “I’ve made a sacrifice of well-being;
    today I fulfilled my solemn promises.
¹⁵ So I’ve come out to meet you,
    seeking you, and I have found you.
¹⁶ I’ve spread my bed with luxurious covers,
    with colored linens from Egypt.
¹⁷ I’ve sprinkled my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink deep of love until morning;
    let’s savor our lovemaking.
¹⁹ For my husband isn’t home;
    he’s gone far away.
²⁰ He took a pouch of money with him;
    he won’t come home till full moon.”
²¹ She seduces him with all her talk.
    She entices him with her flattery.
²² He goes headlong after her,
    like an ox to the slaughter,
    like a deer leaping into a trap,^[a]
23         until an arrow pierces his liver,
    like a bird hurrying to the snare,
        not aware that it will cost him his life.