Proverbs 7:5–23

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,^b

²³until an arrow pierces his liver,

like a bird darting into a snare—

not knowing it will cost him his life.