Proverbs 7 · Clearspring

Warnings about the Adulteress

¹My son, keep my words and treasure my commandments within you.+ ²Keep my commandments and live; guard my teachings as the apple of your eye.+ ³Tie them to your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.+ ⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman,+ ⁵that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words.+ ⁶For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice.+ ⁷I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment,+ ⁸crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house,+ ⁹at twilight, as the day was fading into the dark of the night.+ ¹⁰Then a woman came out to meet him, with the attire of a harlot and cunning of heart.+ ¹¹She is loud and defiant; her feet do not remain at home.+ ¹²Now in the street, now in the squares, she lurks at every corner.+ ¹³She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him:+ ¹⁴“I have made my peace offerings; today I have paid my vows.+ ¹⁵So I came out to meet you; I sought you, and I have found you.+ ¹⁶I have decked my bed with coverings, with colored linen from Egypt.+ ¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, with aloes, and with cinnamon.+ ¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning. Let us delight in loving caresses!+ ¹⁹For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey.+ ²⁰He took with him a bag of money and will not return till the moon is full.”+ ²¹With her great persuasion she entices him; with her flattering lips she lures him.+ ²²He follows her on impulse, like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer bounding into a trap,+ ²³until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare— not knowing it will cost him his life.+ ²⁴Now, my sons, listen to me, and attend to the words of my mouth.+ ²⁵Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths.+ ²⁶For she has brought many down to death; her slain are many in number.+ ²⁷Her house is the road to Sheol, descending to the chambers of death.+

Warnings about the Adulteress

Study Proverbs 7