Warnings about the Adulteress

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

22Immediately, 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,

23until 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.

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

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

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

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