My son,
keep my words, and lay up my commandments with
thee.
02 Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as
the apple of thine eye.
03 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon
the table of thine heart.
04 Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call
understanding thy kinswoman:
05 That they may keep thee from the strange
woman, from the stranger which flattereth with
her words.
06 For at the window of my house I looked through
my casement,
07 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned
among the youths, a young man void of
understanding,
08 Passing through the street near her corner;
and he went the way to her house,
09 In the twilight, in the evening, in the black
and dark night:
10 And, behold, there met him a woman with the
attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11 (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not
in her house:
12 Now is she without, now in the streets, and
lieth in wait at every corner.)
13 So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an
impudent face said unto him,
14 I have peace offerings with me; this day have
I payed my vows.
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15 Therefore came I forth to meet thee,
diligently to seek thy face, and I have found
thee.
16 I have decked my bed with coverings of
tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen 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 loves.
19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a
long journey:
20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and
will come home at the day appointed.
21 With her much fair speech she caused him to
yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced
him.
22 He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth
to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction
of the stocks;
23 Till a dart strike through his liver; as a
bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that
it is for his life.
24 Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children,
and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go
not astray in her paths.
26 For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many
strong men have been slain by her.
27 Her house is the way to hell, going down to
the chambers of death.
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