CLV(i)
20 My son, preserve the instruction of your father, And do not abandon the law of your mother."
21 Tie them upon your heart continually; Wind them about your throat.
22 When you walk about, it shall give you guidance, When you lie down, it shall guard over you, And when you awake, it shall importune you."
23 For instruction is a lamp, and law is a light, And the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,
24 To keep you from the evil woman, From the slick tongue of the foreign woman."
25 Do not covet after her loveliness in your heart, And do not let her captivate you with her eyelids."
26 For a woman of prostitution hunts for a cake of bread, Yet the adulterous wife of a man hunts the precious soul."
27 Can a man bank a fire in his bosom And his garments not be burned?
28 Or can a man walk on embers And his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who comes to the wife of his associate; Anyone who touches her shall not be held innocent.
30 Men do not despise a thief when he steals In order to fill his soul's needs when he is famishing,
31 Yet when he is found, he shall repay sevenfold Though he must give up all the wealth of his house."
32 But he who commits adultery with another's wife has lack of heart wisdom; He is causing ruin to his soul who does it.
33 Contagion and dishonor shall he find, And his reproach cannot be wiped out;"
34 For jealousy incites the fury of a master, And he shall not spare in the day of vengeance;"
35 He shall not respect any sheltering gift And shall not be willing to relent though you increase the bribe.
7 1 My son, keep my sayings, And store up my instructions within you."
2 Keep my instructions and live, And guard my law as the pupil of your eyes."
3 Tie them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, You are my sister, And call understanding your near relative,
5 In order to keep you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who makes her sayings slick."
6 For at the window of my house I gazed out through my latticed oriel,
7 And I saw among the simple, I detected among the sons, A youth who had lack of heart wisdom."
8 He was passing along the road beside her corner, And he stepped the way to her house,
9 In the gloaming at the evening of the day, In the tranquil night and the gloom;"
10 And behold, a woman came out to meet him In the burnoose of a prostitute and constricted of heart."
11 She is clamorous and stubborn; Her feet never tabernacle at her home;
12 At times in the street, at times in the squares, And beside every corner she waits in ambush."
13 She held him fast and kissed him; She set her face with impudence and said to him:
14 The sacrifices of peace offerings were due from me; Today I paid my vows.
15 Therefore, I came forth to meet you, To seek your face early, and I have found you."
16 I have decorated my divan with decorative covers, With bedspreads of Egyptian yarn."
17 I have wafted my bed with myrrh, Aloes and cinnamon."
18 Do come, let us satiate ourselves with affection until the morning; Let us make ourselves joyous with love expressions."
19 For the husband is not in his home; He has gone on his way afar.
20 He took a pouch of silver in his hand, And he shall come back to his home only with the day of full moon."
21 She turned him aside with her great influence; With slick words on her lips she induced him.
22 Suddenly he was going after her, Like a bull that comes to the slaughter, Like a calf to the bonds of foolish creatures,
23 Until an arrow thrusts through his liver, As through a bird that hastened to the snare When it did not know that it was set for its soul."
24 Now then, my sons, hearken to me, And attend to the sayings of my mouth."
25 Do not let your heart swerve to her ways; Do not stray into her tracks.
26 For many are the mortally wounded she has cast down, And plentiful are all those killed by her."
27 Her house is a road to the unseen, One descending to the chambers of death."