¹ My son, keep my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee.
² Keep my commandments, and live;
And my law as the apple of thine eye.
³ Bind them upon thy fingers,
Write them upon the table of thine heart.
⁴ Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister;
And call understanding thy kinswoman:
⁵ That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
From the stranger which flattereth with her words.

⁶ For at the window of my house
I looked through my casement,
⁷ And beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man void of understanding,
⁸ Passing through the street near her corner;
And he went the way to her house,
⁹ 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.
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.