Châm Ngôn 7

The young man and the adulteress

¹My son, hold on to what I say, \q and keep my commands safe like treasure. ²Keep my commands and you will live; \q guard my teaching as carefully as the pupil of your eye. ³Tie them around your fingers; \q inscribe them on your heart as on a tablet. ⁴Tell wisdom, “You are my sister,” \q and give understanding the name of dearest friend, ⁵so that they keep you from the woman who is not yours, \q the outsider with her flattering words. ⁶Once, from the window of my house, \q I looked down through the lattice,^{a 7}and among the naive I saw, \q among the young men I noticed, \q a youth with no sense, ⁸walking down the street near her corner, \q stepping out along the road to her house, ⁹at dusk, as the day turned to evening, \q as the black of night came on. ¹⁰Then out came a woman to meet him, \q dressed as a prostitute, her mind full of schemes. ¹¹She is loud and unruly; \q her feet never stay at home. ¹²One moment she is out in the street, \q the next in the squares, \q waiting in ambush at every corner. ¹³She grabs him and kisses him, \q and with a brazen face she tells him, ¹⁴“I had peace offerings to make, \q and today I have kept my vows. ¹⁵That is why I came out looking for you; \q I was eager to see you, and here you are! ¹⁶I have spread my couch with covers, \q with colored sheets of Egyptian linen. ¹⁷I have scented my bed with myrrh, \q aloes and cinnamon. ¹⁸Come, let us drink deep of love until morning \q and take our pleasure in lovemaking. ¹⁹The man of the house is away; \q he has gone on a long trip. ²⁰He took a bag of money with him \q and will not be home until the full moon.” ²¹With all her powers of persuasion she wins him over; \q with her smooth talk she pushes him on. ²²All at once he is following her, \q like an ox on its way to be slaughtered, \q like a fool in fetters on the way to punishment,^{b 23}until an arrow splits his liver; \q like a bird rushing into a snare, \q he has no idea it will cost him his life.

Her house is the road to death

²⁴So now, sons, listen to me; \q pay close attention to what I say. ²⁵Do not let your heart drift toward her ways \q or stray onto her paths, ²⁶for she has brought down many victims, \q and those she has killed are without number. ²⁷Her house is the highway into Sheol, \q sloping down to the rooms of death.