The Book of Proverbs

Chapter-7

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

Proverbs 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,

 

Proverbs 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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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