📖 Proverbs 7
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Admonition to Avoid the Wiles of the Adulteress My child, devote yourself to my words and store up my commands inside yourself.
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Keep my commands so that you may live, and obey my instruction as your most prized possession.
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Bind them on your forearm; write them on the tablet of your heart.
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Say to wisdom,“You are my sister,” and call understanding a close relative,
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so that they may keep you from the adulterous woman, from the loose woman who has flattered you with her words.
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For at the window of my house through my window lattice I looked out
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and I saw among the naive– I discerned among the youths– a young man who lacked sense.
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He was passing by the street near her corner, making his way along the road to her house
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in the twilight, the evening, in the dark of the night.
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Suddenly a woman came out to meet him! She was dressed like a prostitute and with secret intent.
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(She is loud and rebellious, she does not remain at home–
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at one time outside, at another in the wide plazas, and by every corner she lies in wait.)
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So she grabbed him and kissed him, and with a bold expression she said to him,
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“I have meat from my peace offerings at home; today I have fulfilled my vows!
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That is why I came out to meet you, to look for you, and I found you!
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I have spread my bed with elegant coverings, with richly colored fabric from Egypt.
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I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
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Come, let’s drink deeply of lovemaking until morning, let’s delight ourselves with love’s pleasures.
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For my husband is not at home; he has gone on a journey of some distance.
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He has taken a bag of money with him; he will not return until the end of the month.”
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She turned him aside with her persuasions; with her smooth talk she was enticing him along.
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Suddenly he was going after her like an ox that goes to the slaughter, like a stag prancing into a trapper’s snare
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till an arrow pierces his liver– like a bird hurrying into a trap, and he does not know that it will cost him his life.
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So now, sons, listen to me, and pay attention to the words I speak.
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Do not let your heart turn aside to her ways– do not wander into her pathways;
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for she has brought down many fatally wounded, and all those she has slain are many.
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Her house is the way to the grave, going down to the chambers of death.