Proverbs, chapter 7

The Foolishness of Unfaithfulness

CMy son, pay close attention

and don't forget what I tell you to do.

²Obey me, and you will live!

Let my instructions be your greatest treasure.

³Keep them at your fingertips

and write them in your mindI.

⁴Let wisdom be your sister

and make common sense your closest friend.

⁵They will protect you

from the flattering words of someone else's wifeI.

⁶From the window of my house,

I once happened to see ⁷some foolish young men.

⁸It was late in the evening, sometime after dark.

⁹One of these young men turned the corner

and was walking by the house of an unfaithful wife.

¹⁰She was dressed fancy like a woman of the streetP

with only one thing in mind.

¹¹She was one of those women who are loud and restless

and never stay at home,

¹²who walk street after street, waiting to trap a man.

¹³She grabbed him and kissed him,

and with no sense of shame, she said:

¹⁴“I had to offer a sacrifice,

and there is enough meat left overH for a feast.

¹⁵So I came looking for you, and here you are!

¹⁶The sheets on my bed

are bright-colored cloth from Egypt.

¹⁷And I have covered it with perfume

made of myrrh, aloesO, and cinnamon.

¹⁸“Let's go there and make love all night.

¹⁹My husband is traveling, and he's far away.

²⁰He took a lot of money along,

and he won't be back home before the middle of the month.”

²¹And so, she tricked him

with all of her sweet talk and her flattery.

²²At once he followed her

like an oxO on the way to be slaughtered,

or like a fool on the way to be punished*

²³and killed with arrows.

He was no more than a bird rushing into a trapO,

without knowing it would cost him his life.

²⁴My son, pay close attention to what I have said.

²⁵Don't even think about that kind of womanP

or let yourself be misled by someone like her.

²⁶Such a woman has caused the downfall

and destruction of a lot of men.

²⁷Her house is a one-way street leading straight down

to the world of the deadI.