My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.

Keep my commandments, and live, and my law as the apple of thine eye.

Bind them upon thy fingers; write them upon the table of thine heart.

Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman,

That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.

For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,

Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,

In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night;

And behold, there met him a woman with the attire of a harlot and subtle of heart.

(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house;

Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)

So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,

I have peace offerings with me; this day have I paid my vows.

Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face; and I have found thee.

I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.

I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

Come let us take our fill of love until the morning; let us solace ourselves with loves.

For the goodman is not at home; he is gone a long journey;

He hath taken a bag of money with him and will come home at the day appointed.

With her much fair speech she caused him to yield; with the flattering of her lips she forced him.

He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,

Till a dart strike through his liver, as a bird hasteth to the snare and knoweth not that it is for his life.

Hearken unto me now, therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.

Let not thine heart decline to her ways; go not astray in her paths.

For she hath cast down many wounded; yea, many strong men have been slain by her.

Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.