Proverbs 7 - Modern English version

Beware of the Adulteress

7 My son, keep my words,

    and lay up my commandments within you.

2 Keep my commandments and live,

    and my teaching as the apple of your eye.

3 Bind them on your fingers;

    write them on the tablet of your heart.

4 Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”

    and call understanding your kinswoman,

5 that they may keep you from the immoral woman,

    from the seductress who flatters with her words.

6 For at the window of my house

    I looked through my casement,

7 and saw 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 there a woman met him,

    with the attire of a harlot, and subtle of heart.

11 She is loud and stubborn;

    her feet do not abide in her house.

12 Now she is without, now in the streets,

    and lies in wait at every corner.

13 So she caught him, and kissed him;

    and with an impudent face said to him:

14 “I have peace offerings with me;

    this day have I paid my vows.

15 Therefore I came out to meet you,

    diligently to seek your face, and I have found you.

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 love.

19 For my husband is not at home;

    he has gone on a long journey;

20 he has taken a bag of money with him,

    and will come home at the day appointed.”

21 With her enticing speech she caused him to yield,

    with the flattering of her lips she seduced him.

22 He went after her straightway,

    as an ox goes to the slaughter,

or as a fool to the correction of the stocks,

23     until a dart struck through his liver.

As a bird hastens to the snare,

    he did not know that it would cost him his life.

24 Listen to me now therefore, O children,

    and attend to the words of my mouth:

25 do not let your heart turn aside to her ways,

    do not go astray in her paths;

26 for she has cast down many wounded,

    and many strong men have been slain by her.

27 Her house is the way to Sheol,

    going down to the chambers of death.