1 My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments by thee.
2 Keep my commandments and my law, even as the apple of thine eye, and thou shalt live.
3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them in the table of thine heart.
4 Say unto wisdom, "Thou art my sister," and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5 That she may keep thee from the strange woman, and from the harlot which giveth sweet words.
6 For out of the window of my house I looked through the trellis,
7 and beheld the simple people: and among other young folks I spied one young fool
8 going over the streets, by the corner, in the way toward the harlot's house;
9 in the twilight of the evening, when it began now to be night and dark.
10 And behold, there met him a woman with open tokens of a harlot. Only her heart was hid.
11 She was full of loud words and ready to dally: whose feet could not abide in the house.
12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and lurketh in every corner.
13 She caught the young man, kissed him, and was not ashamed, saying,
14 "I had a vow to pay, and this day I perform it.
15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee, that I might seek thy face, and so I have found thee.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings and clothes of Egypt.
17 My bed have I made to smell of Myrrh, Aloes, and Cinnamon.
18 Come, let us lie together, and take our pleasure till it be daylight.
19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone far off.
20 He hath taken the bag of money with him: who can tell when he cometh home?"
21 Thus with many sweet words she overcame him, and with her flattering lips she enticed him
22 suddenly to follow her - as it were an ox to the slaughter, and like as it were a fool that laugheth when he goeth to the stocks to be punished -
23 so long till she hath wounded his liver with her dart: like as if a bird hasted to the snare, not knowing that the peril of his life lieth thereupon.
24 Hear me now therefore, O my son, and mark the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thine heart wander in her ways, and be thou not deceived in her paths.
26 For many a one hath she wounded and cast down, yea many a strong man hath she slain.
27 Her houses are the way to hell, where men go down into the chambers of death.