Chapter 7

  My son! keep my sayings, And my commands lay up with thee.  

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  Keep my commands, and live, And my law as the pupil of thine eye.  

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  Bind them on thy fingers, Write them on the tablet of thy heart.  

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  Say to wisdom, 'My sister Thou [art].' And cry to understanding, 'Kinswoman!'  

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  To preserve thee from a strange woman, From a stranger who hath made smooth her sayings.  

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  For, at a window of my house, Through my casement I have looked out,  

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  And I do see among the simple ones, I discern among the sons, A young man lacking understanding,  

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  Passing on in the street, near her corner, And the way [to] her house he doth step,  

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  In the twilight -- in the evening of day, In the darkness of night and blackness.  

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  And, lo, a woman to meet him -- (A harlot's dress, and watchful of heart,  

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  Noisy she [is], and stubborn, In her house her feet rest not.  

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  Now in an out-place, now in broad places, And near every corner she lieth in wait) --  

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  And she laid hold on him, and kissed him, She hath hardened her face, and saith to him,  

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  'Sacrifices of peace-offerings [are] by me, To-day I have completed my vows.  

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  Therefore I have come forth to meet thee, To seek earnestly thy face, and I find thee.  

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  [With] ornamental coverings I decked my couch, Carved works -- cotton of Egypt.  

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  I sprinkled my bed -- myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.  

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  Come, we are filled [with] loves till the morning, We delight ourselves in loves.  

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  For the man is not in his house, He hath gone on a long journey.  

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  A bag of money he hath taken in his hand, At the day of the new moon he cometh to his house.'  

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  She turneth him aside with the abundance of her speech, With the flattery of her lips she forceth him.  

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  He is going after her straightway, As an ox unto the slaughter he cometh, And as a fetter unto the chastisement of a fool,  

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  Till an arrow doth split his liver, As a bird hath hastened unto a snare, And hath not known that it [is] for its life.  

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  And now, ye sons, hearken to me, And give attention to sayings of my mouth.  

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  Let not thy heart turn unto her ways, Do not wander in her paths,  

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  For many [are] the wounded she caused to fall, And mighty [are] all her slain ones.  

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  The ways of Sheol -- her house, Going down unto inner chambers of death!  

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