CHAPTER 7
1 My son, keep thou my words; and keep my behests to thee. (My son, remember my words; and keep my commands with thee.)
2 Keep thou my behests, and thou shalt live; and my law, as the apple of thine eye. (Keep thou my commands, and thou shalt live; and my instructions, or my teaching, as the apple of thine eyes.)
3 Bind thou it in thy fingers; write thou it in the tables of thine heart. (Bind thou it on thy fingers; write thou it on the tablets of thy heart.)
4 Say thou to wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call thou prudence thy love (or and call thou understanding, thy friend).
5 That it keep thee from a strange woman; and from an alien woman, that maketh her words sweet. (So that they keep thee safe from a strange woman; yea, from an unknown woman, who maketh her words sweet.)
6 (For she saith), For why from the window of mine house, by the lattice, I beheld;
7 and I see little children, that is, fools that have little wit. I behold a young man coward, (and I see fools, who have little intelligence. I behold a cowardly young man,)
8 that passeth by the streets, beside the corner, (or who passeth along the street, beside the corner); and he goeth nigh the way of her house,
9 in dark time, when the day draweth to night, in the darkness and mist in the night.
10 And lo! a woman, made ready with (the) ornament of an whore to deceive souls, meeteth him,
11 and she is a jangler, and going about, and unpatient of rest, and may not stand in the house with her feet; (and she is a gossip, who goeth about restlessly, yea, who cannot stand still in her own house;)
12 and now withoutforth, now in [the] streets, now beside [the] corners, she ambusheth (him).
13 And she taketh (hold of), and kisseth the young man; and flattereth (him) with wooing cheer, that is, unrestful (ly), and without shame, and saith,
14 I owed sacrifices for health (or I have paid my offerings for my deliverance); today I have yielded my vows.
15 Therefore I went out into thy meeting, and I desired to see thee; and I have found thee.
16 I have made (ready) my bed with cords, I have arrayed it with tapets painted of Egypt; (I have prepared my bed, yea, I have arrayed it with coloured tapestries from Egypt;)
17 I have besprinkled my bed with myrrh, and aloes, and canel (or and cinnamon).
18 Come thou, be we filled with touching of teats, and use we embracings that be coveted (or and with desired embraces); till the day begin to be clear.
19 For mine husband is not in his house; he is gone (away) a full long way.
20 He took with him a bag of money; he shall turn again in to his house in the day of [the] full moon. (He took a bag of money with him; and he shall not return to his house until the day of the full moon.)
21 She bound him with many words; and she drew forth him with flatterings of lips. (And so she bound him with many words; and she drew him forth with the flattery from her lips.)
22 Anon he as an ox led to slain sacrifice followeth her, and as a jolly lamb and unknowing; and the fool knoweth not, that he is drawn to bonds, (And so at once he followeth her, like an ox led away to be slain for the offering, and like a jolly, and unknowing, lamb; and the fool knoweth not, that he is drawn into bonds,)
23 till an arrow pierce his maw. As if a bird hasteth to the snare; and knoweth not, that it is done of the peril of his life. (until an arrow pierce his belly. Yea, like a bird that hasteneth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is done at the peril of its own life.)
24 Now therefore, my son, hear thou me; and perceive the words of my mouth. (And so now, my son, listen thou to me; and understand the words that I speak.)
25 Lest thy soul be drawn away in the ways of her; neither be thou deceived in the paths of her. (Lest thy life be drawn away by her ways; go thou not forth on her deceptive paths.)
26 For she hath cast down many wounded men; and all [the] strongest men were slain of her. (For she hath wounded, and cast down, many men; yea, even the strongest men have been slain by her.)
27 The ways of hell is her house; and pierce(th) into the inner things of death. (Her house is the way, or the entrance, to Sheol or to hell; yea, it leadeth down to the land of the dead.)