1 - My son, keep my sayings, and let my rules be stored up with you.
2 - Keep my rules and you will have life; let my teaching be to you as the light of your eyes;
3 - Let them be fixed to your fingers, and recorded in your heart.
4 - Say to wisdom, You are my sister; let knowledge be named your special friend:
5 - So that they may keep you from the strange woman, even from her whose words are smooth.
6 - Looking out from my house, and watching through the window,
7 - I saw among the young men one without sense,
8 - Walking in the street near the turn of her road, going on the way to her house,
9 - At nightfall, in the evening of the day, in the black dark of the night.
10 - And the woman came out to him, in the dress of a loose woman, with a designing heart;
11 - She is full of noise and uncontrolled; her feet keep not in her house.
12 - Now she is in the street, now in the open spaces, waiting at every turning of the road.
13 - So she took him by his hand, kissing him, and without a sign of shame she said to him:
14 - I have a feast of peace-offerings, for today my oaths have been effected.
15 - So I came out in the hope of meeting you, looking for you with care, and now I have you.
16 - My bed is covered with cushions of needlework, with coloured cloths of the cotton thread of Egypt;
17 - I have made my bed sweet with perfumes and spices.
18 - Come, let us take our pleasure in love till the morning, having joy in love's delights.
19 - For the master of the house is away on a long journey:
20 - He has taken a bag of money with him; he is coming back at the full moon.
21 - With her fair words she overcame him, forcing him with her smooth lips.
22 - The simple man goes after her, like an ox going to its death, like a roe pulled by a cord;
23 - Like a bird falling into a net; with no thought that his life is in danger, till an arrow goes into his side.
24 - So now, my sons, give ear to me; give attention to the sayings of my mouth;
25 - Let not your heart be turned to her ways, do not go wandering in her footsteps.
26 - For those wounded and made low by her are great in number; and all those who have come to their death through her are a great army.
27 - Her house is the way to the underworld, going down to the rooms of death.