Proverbs 7:1-27

  • Embrace God’s commands and live (1-5)

  • A naive young man seduced (6-27)

    • “Like a bull to the slaughter” (22)

7  My son, keep my sayings,And treasure up my commandments.+   Keep my commandments and live;+Guard my instruction* like the pupil of your eye.   Tie them around your fingers;Write them on the tablet of your heart.+   Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” And call understanding “my relative,”   To guard you against the wayward* woman,+Against the immoral* woman and her smooth* words.+   From the window of my house,Through my lattice, I looked down,   And as I observed the naive* ones,I discerned among the youths a young man lacking good sense.*+   He passed along the street near her corner,And he marched in the direction of her house   In the twilight, in the evening,+At the approach of night and darkness. 10  Then I saw a woman meet him,Dressed like* a prostitute,+ with a cunning heart. 11  She is loud and defiant.+ She never stays* at home. 12  One moment she is outside, next she is in the public squares,She lurks near every corner.+ 13  She grabs hold of him and gives him a kiss;With a bold face, she says to him: 14  “I had to offer communion sacrifices.+ Today I paid my vows. 15  That is why I came out to meet you,To look for you, and I found you! 16  I have spread fine covers upon my bed,Colorful linen from Egypt.+ 17  I have sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.+ 18  Come, let us drink our fill of love until the morning;Let us enjoy passionate love together, 19  For my husband is not at home;He has gone on a distant journey. 20  He took a bag of money with him,And he will not return until the day of the full moon.” 21  She misleads him with great persuasiveness.+ She seduces him with smooth speech. 22  Suddenly he goes after her, like a bull to the slaughter,Like a fool to be punished in the stocks,*+ 23  Until an arrow pierces his liver;Like a bird rushing into a trap, he does not know that it will cost him his life.*+ 24  And now, my sons, listen to me;Pay attention to the words I speak. 25  Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways. Do not stray onto her paths,+ 26  For she has caused many to fall down slain,+And those she has killed are numerous.+ 27  Her house leads to the Grave;*It goes down to the inner chambers of death.

Footnotes

Or “law.”
Lit., “strange.” See Pr 2:16.
Lit., “foreign.” See Pr 2:16.
Or “seductive.”
Or “inexperienced.”
Lit., “in want of heart.”
Or “with the garment of.”
Lit., “Her feet never stay.”
Or “fetters.”
Or “soul.”
Or “Sheol,” that is, the common grave of mankind. See Glossary.