1My son, keep thou my words; and keep my behests to thee.

2Keep thou my behests, and thou shalt live; and my law, as the apple of thine eye.

3Bind thou it in thy fingers; write thou it in the tables of thine heart.

4Say thou to wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call thou prudence thy love.

5That it keep thee from a strange woman; and from an alien woman, that maketh her words sweet.

6For she saith, For why from the window of mine house, by the lattice, I beheld;

7and I see little children, that is, fools that have little wit. I behold a young man coward [or the sorry-hearted young man],

8that passeth by [or through] the streets, beside the corner; and he goeth nigh the way of her house,

9in dark time, when the day draweth to night, in the darkness and mist in the night.

10And lo! a woman, made ready with ornament of an whore to deceive souls, meeteth him,

11and she is a jangler, and going about, and unpatient of rest, and may not stand in the house with her feet;

12and now withoutforth, now in [the] streets, now beside [the] corners, she ambusheth.

13And she taketh, and kisseth the young man; and flattereth with wooing cheer, that is, unrestfully, and without shame, and saith,

14I owed sacrifices for health; today I have yielded my vows.

15Therefore I went out into thy meeting, and I desired to see thee; and I have found thee.

16I have made my bed with cords, I have arrayed it with tapets painted [or with painted tapets] of Egypt;

17I have besprinkled my bed with myrrh, and aloes, and canel.

18Come thou, be we filled with touching of teats, and use we embracings that be coveted; till the day begin to be clear.

19For mine husband is not in his house; he is gone a full long way.

20He took with him a bag of money; he shall turn again into his house in the day of [the] full moon.

21She bound him with many words; and she drew forth him with flatterings of lips.

22Anon he as an ox led to slain sacrifice pursueth [or followeth] her, and as a jolly lamb and unknowing; and the fool knoweth not, that he is drawn to bonds,

23till 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.

24Now therefore, my son, hear thou me; and perceive the words of my mouth.

25Lest thy soul be drawn away in the ways of her; neither be thou deceived in the paths of her.

26For she hath cast down many wounded men; and all [the] strongest men were slain of her.

27The ways of hell is her house; and pierce into the inner things of death.