1My son, pay attention to my words. Treasure my commands that are within you.

2Obey my commands so that you may live. Follow my teachings just as you protect the pupil of your eye.

3Tie them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

4Say to wisdom, "You are my sister." Give the name "my relative" to understanding

5in order to guard yourself from an adulterous woman, from a loose woman with her smooth talk.

6From a window in my house I looked through my screen.

7I was looking at gullible people when I saw a young man without much sense among youths.

8He was crossing a street near her corner and walking toward her house

9in the twilight, in the evening, in the dark hours of the night.

10A woman with an ulterior motive meets him. She is dressed as a prostitute.

11She is loud and rebellious. Her feet will not stay at home.

12One moment she is out on the street, the next she is at the curb, on the prowl at every corner.

13She grabs him and kisses him and brazenly says to him,

14"I have some sacrificial meat. Today I kept my vows.

15That's why I came to meet you. Eagerly, I looked for you, and I've found you.

16I've made my bed, with colored sheets of Egyptian linen.

17I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.

18Come, let's drink our fill of love until morning. Let's enjoy making love,

19because my husband's not home. He has gone on a long trip.

20He took lots of money with him. He won't be home for a couple of weeks."

21With all her seductive charms, she persuades him. With her smooth lips, she makes him give in.

22He immediately follows her like a steer on its way to be slaughtered, like a ram hobbling into captivity

23until an arrow pierces his heart, like a bird darting into a trap. He does not realize that it will cost him his life.

24Now, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words from my mouth.

25Do not let your heart be turned to her ways. Do not wander onto her paths,

26because she has brought down many victims, and she has killed all too many.

27Her home is the way to hell and leads to the darkest vaults of death.