[1] My son, pay attention to my words. Treasure my commands that are within you. [2] Obey my commands so that you may live. Follow my teachings just as you protect the pupil of your eye. [3] Tie them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart. [4] Say to wisdom, "You are my sister." Give the name "my relative" to understanding [5] in order to guard yourself from an adulterous woman, from a loose woman with her smooth talk. [6] From a window in my house I looked through my screen. [7] I was looking at gullible people when I saw a young man without much sense among youths. [8] He was crossing a street near her corner and walking toward her house [9] in the twilight, in the evening, in the dark hours of the night. [10] A woman with an ulterior motive meets him. She is dressed as a prostitute. [11] She is loud and rebellious. Her feet will not stay at home. [12] One moment she is out on the street, the next she is at the curb, on the prowl at every corner. [13] She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him, [14] "I have some sacrificial meat. Today I kept my vows. [15] That's why I came to meet you. Eagerly, I looked for you, and I've found you. [16] I've made my bed, with colored sheets of Egyptian linen. [17] I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. [18] Come, let's drink our fill of love until morning. Let's enjoy making love, [19] because my husband's not home. He has gone on a long trip. [20] He took lots of money with him. He won't be home for a couple of weeks." [21] With all her seductive charms, she persuades him. With her smooth lips, she makes him give in. [22] He immediately follows her like a steer on its way to be slaughtered, like a ram hobbling into captivity [23] until an arrow pierces his heart, like a bird darting into a trap. He does not realize that it will cost him his life. [24] Now, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words from my mouth. [25] Do not let your heart be turned to her ways. Do not wander onto her paths, [26] because she has brought down many victims, and she has killed all too many. [27] Her home is the way to hell and leads to the darkest vaults of death.
