RSV Proverbs 7 Chapter
7:1
My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you;
7:2
keep my commandments and live, keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;
7:3
bind them on your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
7:4
Say to wisdom, 'You are my sister,' and call insight your intimate friend;
7:5
to preserve you from the loose woman, from the adventuress with her smooth words.
7:6
For at the window of my house I have looked out through my lattice,
7:7
and I have seen among the simple, I have perceived among the youths, a young man without sense,
7:8
passing along the street near her corner, taking the road to her house
7:9
in the twilight, in the evening, at the time of night and darkness.
7:10
And lo, a woman meets him, dressed as a harlot, wily of heart.
7:11
She is loud and wayward, her feet do not stay at home;
7:12
now in the street, now in the market, and at every corner she lies in wait.
7:13
She seizes him and kisses him, and with impudent face she says to him:
7:14
'I had to offer sacrifices, and today I have paid my vows;
7:15
so now I have come out to meet you, to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
7:16
I have decked my couch with coverings, colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
7:17
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
7:18
Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;let us delight ourselves with love.
7:19
For my husband is not at home;he has gone on a long journey;
7:20
he took a bag of money with him;at full moon he will come home.'
7:21
With much seductive speech she persuades him;with her smooth talk she compels him.
7:22
All at once he follows her, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a stag is caught fast
7:23
till an arrow pierces its entrails;as a bird rushes into a snare;he does not know that it will cost him his life.
7:24
And now, O sons, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
7:25
Let not your heart turn aside to her ways, do not stray into her paths;
7:26
for many a victim has she laid low;yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
7:27
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.