Proverbs 7

Tree of Life Version

⁵ They will keep you from a seducing woman,
from the foreign woman with her seductive speech.
⁶ For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice.
⁷ I saw among the naïve,
I noticed among the youth,
    a young man lacking understanding,
⁸ crossing the street near her corner,
    walking in the direction of her house,
⁹ in the twilight of the evening,
    in the darkest hours of the night.
¹⁰ All of a sudden, a woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute and with a cunning heart.
¹¹ She is loud and defiant.
Her feet never stay at home—
¹² now in the streets, now in the squares,
at every corner she lurks.
¹³ So she grabs him and kisses him
and with a brazen face says to him:
¹⁴ “I had to sacrifice fellowship offerings;
    today I paid my vow.
¹⁵ So I’ve come out to meet you,
to seek your presence eagerly—and I found you!
¹⁶ I have spread my couch with tapestry
of dyed Egyptian linens.
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed
with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let’s drink our fill of love till morning!
Let’s delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹ For my husband is not at home—
he’s gone on a long journey.
²⁰ He took a bag of money with him—
he won’t come home until full moon.”
²¹ With her persistent pleading she entices him,
with smooth talk she seduces him.
²² Suddenly he follows her
like an ox going to the slaughter,
like a stag bounding toward a trap,
²³ till an arrow pierces its liver.
Like a bird darting into a snare,
    he never considered his own soul!

²⁴ Now then, sons, listen to me,
pay attention to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Do not let your heart turn to her ways
or stray onto her paths.
²⁶ For many are the victims she has brought down,
and numerous are all her slain.
²⁷ Her house is a highway to Sheol,
leading down to the chambers of death.