NRSV Proverbs 7 Chapter
7:1
My child, keep my words and store 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
that they may keep you from the loose woman, from the adulteress with her smooth words.
7:6
For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice,
7:7
and I saw among the simple ones, I observed 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
Then a woman comes toward him, decked out like a prostitute, 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 squares, 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 until 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; he will not come home until full moon."
7:21
With much seductive speech she persuades him; with her smooth talk she compels him.
7:22
Right away he follows her, and goes like an ox to the slaughter, or bounds like a stag toward the trap
7:23
until an arrow pierces its entrails. He is like a bird rushing into a snare, not knowing that it will cost him his life.
7:24
And now, my children, listen to me, and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
7:25
Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.
7:26
for many are those she has laid low, and numerous are her victims.
7:27
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the chambers of death.