¹ My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee. ² Keep my commandments and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye. ³ Bind them upon thy fingers. Write them upon the tablet of thy heart. ⁴ Say to wisdom, Thou are my sister, and call understanding [thy] kinswoman, ⁵ that they may keep thee from the interloping woman, from the stranger who flatters with her words.

⁶ For at the window of my house I looked forth through my lattice, ⁷ and I beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding ⁸ passing through the street near her corner. And he went the way to her house, ⁹ in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness. ¹⁰ And, behold, there met him a woman attired like a harlot, and wily of heart. ¹¹ She is loud and headstrong. Her feet abide not in her house. ¹² Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places, and lays in wait at every corner. ¹³ So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him, ¹⁴ Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me. I have paid my vows this day. ¹⁵ Therefore I came forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee. ¹⁶ I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt. ¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. ¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning. Let us solace ourselves with love. ¹⁹ For the man is not at home. He has gone a long journey. ²⁰ He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon. ²¹ With her much fair speech she causes him to yield. With the flattering of her lips she forces him along. ²² He goes after her straightaway, as an ox goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks, ²³ till an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hastens to the snare. And he does not know that it is for his life.