CPDV - Proverbs - 7

7:1  My son, guard my words and conceal my precepts within you.

7:2  Son, preserve my commandments, and you shall live. And keep my law as the pupil of your eye.

7:3  Bind it with your fingers; write it on the tablets of your heart.

7:4  Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call prudence your friend.

7:5  So may she guard you from the woman who is an outsider, and from the stranger who sweetens her words.

7:6  For I gaze from the window of my house, through the lattice,

7:7  and I see little ones. I consider a frenzied youth,

7:8  who crosses the street at the corner and close to the way of that house.

7:9  He steps into shadows, as day becomes evening, into the darkness and gloom of the night.

7:10  And behold, a woman meets him, dressed like a harlot, prepared to captivate souls: chattering and rambling,

7:11  unwilling to bear silence, unable to keep her feet at home,

7:12  now outside, now in the streets, now lying in ambush near the corners.

7:13  And overtaking the youth, she kisses him, and with a provocative face, she flatters him, saying:

7:14  “I vowed sacrifices for well-being. Today I have repaid my vows.

7:15  Because of this, I have gone out to meet you, desiring to see you, and I have found you.

7:16  I have woven my bed with cords. I have strewn it with embroidered tapestries from Egypt.

7:17  I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloe, and cinnamon.

7:18  Come, let us be inebriated in abundance, and let us delight in the embraces of desire, until the day begins to dawn.

7:19  For my husband is not in his house. He has gone away on a very long journey.

7:20  He took with him a bag of money. He will return to his house on the day of the full moon.”

7:21  She enmeshed him with many words, and she drew him forward with the flattery of her lips.

7:22  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,

7:23  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.

7:24  Therefore, my son, hear me now, and attend to the words of my mouth.

7:25  Do not let your mind be pulled into her ways. And do not be deceived by her paths.

7:26  For she has tossed aside many wounded, and some of those who were very strong have been slain by her.

7:27  Her household is the way to Hell, reaching even to the inner places of death.