1<\/sup>My son, guard my words and conceal my precepts within you.<\/span> <\/p>\n 2<\/sup>Son, preserve my commandments, and you shall live. And keep my law as the pupil of your eye.<\/span> <\/p>\n 3<\/sup>Bind it with your fingers; write it on the tablets of your heart.<\/span> <\/p>\n 4<\/sup>Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call prudence your friend.<\/span> <\/p>\n 5<\/sup>So may she guard you from the woman who is an outsider, and from the stranger who sweetens her words.<\/span> <\/p>\n 6<\/sup>For I gaze from the window of my house, through the lattice,<\/span> <\/p>\n 7<\/sup>and I see little ones. I consider a frenzied youth,<\/span> <\/p>\n 8<\/sup>who crosses the street at the corner and close to the way of that house.<\/span> <\/p>\n 9<\/sup>He steps into shadows, as day becomes evening, into the darkness and gloom of the night.<\/span> <\/p>\n 10<\/sup>And behold, a woman meets him, dressed like a harlot, prepared to captivate souls: chattering and rambling,<\/span> <\/p>\n 11<\/sup>unwilling to bear silence, unable to keep her feet at home,<\/span> <\/p>\n 12<\/sup>now outside, now in the streets, now lying in ambush near the corners.<\/span> <\/p>\n 13<\/sup>And overtaking the youth, she kisses him, and with a provocative face, she flatters him, saying:<\/span> <\/p>\n 14<\/sup>“I vowed sacrifices for well-being. Today I have repaid my vows.<\/span> <\/p>\n 15<\/sup>Because of this, I have gone out to meet you, desiring to see you, and I have found you.<\/span> <\/p>\n 16<\/sup>I have woven my bed with cords. I have strewn it with embroidered tapestries from Egypt.<\/span> <\/p>\n 17<\/sup>I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloe, and cinnamon.<\/span> <\/p>\n 18<\/sup>Come, let us be inebriated in abundance, and let us delight in the embraces of desire, until the day begins to dawn.<\/span> <\/p>\n 19<\/sup>For my husband is not in his house. He has gone away on a very long journey.<\/span> <\/p>\n 20<\/sup>He took with him a bag of money. He will return to his house on the day of the full moon.”<\/span> <\/p>\n 21<\/sup>She enmeshed him with many words, and she drew him forward with the flattery of her lips.<\/span> <\/p>\n 22<\/sup>Immediately, he follows her, like an ox being led to the sacrifice, and like a lamb acting lasciviously, and not knowing that he is being drawn foolishly into chains,<\/span> <\/p>\n 23<\/sup>until the arrow pierces his liver. It is just as if a bird were to hurry into the snare. And he does not know that his actions endanger his own soul.<\/span> <\/p>\n 24<\/sup>Therefore, my son, hear me now, and attend to the words of my mouth.<\/span> <\/p>\n 25<\/sup>Do not let your mind be pulled into her ways. And do not be deceived by her paths.<\/span> <\/p>\n 26<\/sup>For she has tossed aside many wounded, and some of those who were very strong have been slain by her.<\/span> <\/p>\n 27<\/sup>Her household is the way to Hell, reaching even to the inner places of death.<\/span> <\/p>\n