Proverbs 7
7
1My son, keep my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee.
2Keep my commandments, and live;
And my law as the apple of thine eye.
3Bind them upon thy fingers,
Write them upon the table of thine heart.
4Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister;
And call understanding thy kinswoman:
5That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
From the stranger which flattereth with her words.
6For at the window of my house
I looked through my casement,
7And beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man void of understanding,
8Passing through the street near her corner;
And he went the way to her house,
9In the twilight, in the evening,
In the black and dark night:
10And, behold, there met him a woman
With the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11(She is loud and stubborn;
Her feet abide not in her house:
12Now is she without, now in the streets,
And lieth in wait at every corner.)
13So she caught him, and kissed him,
And with an impudent face said unto him,
14 I have peace offerings with me;
This day have I payed my vows.
15Therefore came I forth to meet thee,
Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry,
With carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17I have perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning:
Let us solace ourselves with loves.
19For the goodman is not at home,
He is gone a long journey:
20He hath taken a bag of money with him,
And will come home at the day appointed.
21With her much fair speech she caused him to yield,
With the flattering of her lips she forced him.
22He goeth after her straightway,
As an ox goeth to the slaughter,
Or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
23Till a dart strike through his liver;
As a bird hasteth to the snare,
And knoweth not that it is for his life.
24Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children,
And attend to the words of my mouth.
25Let not thine heart decline to her ways,
Go not astray in her paths.
26For she hath cast down many wounded:
Yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27Her house is the way to hell,
Going down to the chambers of death.
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Proverbs 7: KJV
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Rights in the Authorized (King James) Version in the United Kingdom are vested in the Crown. Published by permission of the Crown’s patentee, Cambridge University Press.
Learn More About King James VersionProverbs 7
7
The Foolishness of Unfaithfulness
1My son, pay close attention
and don't forget
what I tell you to do.
2Obey me, and you will live!
Let my instructions be
your greatest treasure.
3Keep them at your fingertips
and write them
in your mind.
4Let wisdom be your sister
and make common sense
your closest friend.
5They will protect you
from the flattering words
of someone else's wife.
6From the window of my house,
I once happened to see
7some foolish young men.
8It was late in the evening,
sometime after dark.
9One of these young men
turned the corner
and was walking by the house
of an unfaithful wife.
10She was dressed fancy
like a woman of the street
with only one thing in mind.
11She was one of those women
who are loud and restless
and never stay at home,
12who walk street after street,
waiting to trap a man.
13She grabbed him and kissed him,
and with no sense of shame,
she said:
14“I had to offer a sacrifice,
and there is enough meat
left over for a feast.
15So I came looking for you,
and here you are!
16The sheets on my bed
are bright-colored cloth
from Egypt.
17And I have covered it
with perfume made of myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
18“Let's go there
and make love all night.
19My husband is traveling,
and he's far away.
20He took a lot of money along,
and he won't be back home
before the middle
of the month.”
21And so, she tricked him
with all of her sweet talk
and her flattery.
22At once he followed her
like an ox on the way
to be slaughtered,
or like a fool on the way
to be punished#7.22 a fool … punished: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
23and killed with arrows.
He was no more than a bird
rushing into a trap,
without knowing
it would cost him his life.
24My son, pay close attention
to what I have said.
25Don't even think about
that kind of woman
or let yourself be misled
by someone like her.
26Such a woman has caused
the downfall and destruction
of a lot of men.
27Her house is a one-way street
leading straight down
to the world of the dead.
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Contemporary English Version, Second Edition (CEV®)
© 2006 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.