7:1
My child, keep my words, and treasure my precepts,
7:2
keep my precepts and you will live, keep my teaching as the apple of your eye.
7:3
Bind these to your fingers, write them on the tablet of your heart.
7:4
Say to Wisdom, 'You are my sister!' Call Understanding your relation,
7:5
to save yourself from the woman that belongs to another, from the stranger, with her seductive words.
7:6
While I was at the window of my house, I was looking out through the lattice
7:7
and I saw, among the callow youths, I noticed among the lads, one boy who had no sense.
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Going along the lane, near the corner where she lives, he reaches the path to her house,
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at twilight when day is declining, at dead of night and in the dark.
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And look, a woman is coming to meet him, dressed like a prostitute, false of heart.
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She is loud and brazen; her feet cannot rest at home.
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Once in the street, once in the square, she lurks at every corner.
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She catches hold of him, she kisses him, the bold-faced creature says to him,
7:14
'I had to offer a communion sacrifice, I have discharged my vows today;
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that is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and now I have found you.
7:16
I have spread coverlets over my divan, embroidered stuff, Egyptian material,
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I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, with aloes and cinnamon.
7:18
Come on, we'll make love as much as we like, till morning. Let us enjoy the delights of love!
7:19
For my husband is not at home, he has gone on a very long journey,
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taking his moneybags with him; he will not be back till the moon is full.'
7:21
With her persistent coaxing she overcomes him, lures him on with her wheedling patter.
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Forthwith he follows her, like an ox on its way to the slaughterhouse, like a madman on his way to the stocks,
7:23
until an arrow pierces him to the liver, like the bird that dashes into the net without realising that its life is at stake.
7:24
And now, son, listen to me, pay attention to the words I have to say:
7:25
do not let your heart stray into her ways, or wander into her paths;
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she has done so many to death, and the strongest have all been her victims.
7:27
Her house is the way to Sheol, the descent to the courts of death.
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