1: My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you. 2: Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes; 3: Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart. 4: Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend: 5: So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth. 6: Looking out from my house, and watching through the window, 7: I saw among the young men one without sense, 8: Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house, 9: At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night. 10: And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart; 11: She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house. 12: Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road. 13: So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him: 14: I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected. 15: So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you. 16: My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt; 17: I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices. 18: Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love's delights. 19: For the master of the house is away on a long journey: 20: He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon. 21: With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips. 22: The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord; 23: Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side. 24: So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth; 25: Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps. 26: For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army. 27: Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to the rooms of death.
