1My son, keep my words.
Lay up my commandments within you.
2Keep my commandments and live!
Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
3Bind them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Call understanding your relative,
5that they may keep you from the strange woman,
from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
6For at the window of my house,
I looked out through my lattice.
7I saw among the simple ones.
I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
8passing through the street near her corner,
he went the way to her house,
9in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
10Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
and with crafty intent.
11She is loud and defiant.
Her feet don’t stay in her house.
12Now she is in the streets, now in the squares,
and lurking at every corner.
13So she caught him, and kissed him.
With an impudent face she said to him:
14“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me.
Today I have paid my vows.
15Therefore I came out to meet you,
to diligently seek your face,
and I have found you.
16I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
17I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning.
Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
19For my husband isn’t at home.
He has gone on a long journey.
20He has taken a bag of money with him.
He will come home at the full moon.”
21With persuasive words, she led him astray.
With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
22He followed her immediately,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
as a fool stepping into a noose.
23Until an arrow strikes through his liver,
as a bird hurries to the snare,
and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
24Now therefore, sons, listen to me.
Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
25Don’t let your heart turn to her ways.
Don’t go astray in her paths,
26for she has thrown down many wounded.
Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
27Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the rooms of death.
1Fili mi, custodi sermones meos, et præcepta mea reconde tibi. Fili, 2serva mandata mea, et vives; et legem meam quasi pupillam oculi tui: 3liga eam in digitis tuis, scribe illam in tabulis cordis tui. 4Dic sapientiæ: Soror mea es, et prudentiam voca amicam tuam: 5ut custodiant te a muliere extranea, et ab aliena quæ verba sua dulcia facit. 6De fenestra enim domus meæ per cancellos prospexi, 7et video parvulos; considero vecordem juvenem, 8qui transit per plateam juxta angulum et prope viam domus illius graditur: 9in obscuro, advesperascente die, in noctis tenebris et caligine. 10Et ecce occurrit illi mulier ornatu meretricio, præparata ad capiendas animas: garrula et vaga, 11quietis impatiens, nec valens in domo consistere pedibus suis; 12nunc foris, nunc in plateis, nunc juxta angulos insidians. 13Apprehensumque deosculatur juvenem, et procaci vultu blanditur, dicens: 14Victimas pro salute vovi; hodie reddidi vota mea: 15idcirco egressa sum in occursum tuum, desiderans te videre, et reperi. 16Intexui funibus lectulum meum; stravi tapetibus pictis ex Ægypto: 17aspersi cubile meum myrrha, et aloë, et cinnamomo. 18Veni, inebriemur uberibus, et fruamur cupitis amplexibus donec illucescat dies. 19Non est enim vir in domo sua: abiit via longissima: 20sacculum pecuniæ secum tulit; in die plenæ lunæ reversurus est in domum suam. 21Irretivit eum multis sermonibus, et blanditiis labiorum protraxit illum. 22Statim eam sequitur quasi bos ductus ad victimam, et quasi agnus lasciviens, et ignorans quod ad vincula stultus trahatur: 23donec transfigat sagitta jecur ejus, velut si avis festinet ad laqueum, et nescit quod de periculo animæ illius agitur. 24Nunc ergo, fili mi, audi me, et attende verbis oris mei. 25Ne abstrahatur in viis illius mens tua, neque decipiaris semitis ejus; 26multos enim vulneratos dejecit, et fortissimi quique interfecti sunt ab ea. 27Viæ inferi domus ejus, penetrantes in interiora mortis.