The Adulteress’ Trap
My son, akeep my words
And treasure my commandments within you.
2 aKeep my commandments and live,
And my law bas the apple of your eye.
3 aBind them on your fingers;
bWrite them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
And call understanding your intimate friend;
5 In order to keep you from the strange woman,
From the foreign woman who flatters with her words.
6 For aat the window of my house
I looked out bthrough my lattice,
7 And I saw among the asimple,
And discerned among the sons
A young man blacking a heart of wisdom,
8 Passing through the street near aher corner;
And he strides along the way to bher house,
9 In the atwilight, in the evening of that day,
In the middle of the night, and in the thick darkness.
10 And behold, a woman comes to meet him,
aDressed as a harlot and cunning of heart.
11 She is aboisterous and rebellious,
Her bfeet do not dwell at home;
12 Stepping in the streets, stepping ain the squares,
And near every corner she blies in wait.
13 So she seizes him and kisses him
And with a abrazen face she says to him:
14 “The sacrifices of apeace offerings are with me;
Today I bpaid my vows.
15 Therefore I have come out to meet you,
To seek your face earnestly, and I have found you.
16 I have spread my couch with acoverings,
With colored blinens of Egypt.
17 I have sprinkled my bed
With amyrrh, aloes, and bcinnamon.
18 Come, then, let us drink our fill as lovers until morning;
Let us delight ourselves with the pleasures of love.
19 For my husband is not at home,
He has gone on a journey far away;
20 He took a abag of silver in his hand,
On the day of the full moon he will come home.”
21 With her abundant persuasions she entices him;
With her aflattering lips she drives him to herself.
22 He suddenly follows her
As an ox goes to the slaughter,
Or as one in fetters to the discipline of an ignorant fool,
23 Until an arrow pierces through his liver;
As a abird hastens to the snare,
And he does not know that it will cost him his soul.
24 So now, my sons, alisten to me,
And pay attention to the words of my mouth.
25 Do not let your heart ago astray into her ways,
Do not wander into her pathways.
26 For many are the slain whom she has cast down,
And anumerous are all those killed by her.
27 The ways to Sheol are in her ahouse,
Descending to the chambers of death.