Proverbs 7 – read and compare multiple versions
Proverbs 7
[1] My son, keep my words.
Lay up my commandments within you.
[2] Keep my commandments and live!
Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
[3] Bind them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
[4] Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Call understanding your relative,
[5] that they may keep you from the strange woman,
from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
[6] For at the window of my house,
I looked out through my lattice.
[7] I saw among the simple ones.
I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
[8] passing through the street near her corner,
he went the way to her house,
[9] in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
[10] Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
and with crafty intent.
[11] She is loud and defiant.
Her feet don’t stay in her house.
[12] Now she is in the streets, now in the squares,
and lurking at every corner.
[13] So she caught him, and kissed him.
With an impudent face she said to him:
[14] “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me.
Today I have paid my vows.
[15] Therefore I came out to meet you,
to diligently seek your face,
and I have found you.
[16] I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
[17] I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[18] Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning.
Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
[19] For my husband isn’t at home.
He has gone on a long journey.
[20] He has taken a bag of money with him.
He will come home at the full moon.”
[21] With persuasive words, she led him astray.
With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
[22] He followed her immediately,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
as a fool stepping into a noose.
[23] Until an arrow strikes through his liver,
as a bird hurries to the snare,
and doesn’t know that it will cost his life. [24] Now therefore, sons, listen to me.
Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
[25] Don’t let your heart turn to her ways.
Don’t go astray in her paths,
[26] for she has thrown down many wounded.
Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
[27] Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the rooms of death.
Lay up my commandments within you.
[2] Keep my commandments and live!
Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
[3] Bind them on your fingers.
Write them on the tablet of your heart.
[4] Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.”
Call understanding your relative,
[5] that they may keep you from the strange woman,
from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
[6] For at the window of my house,
I looked out through my lattice.
[7] I saw among the simple ones.
I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
[8] passing through the street near her corner,
he went the way to her house,
[9] in the twilight, in the evening of the day,
in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
[10] Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute,
and with crafty intent.
[11] She is loud and defiant.
Her feet don’t stay in her house.
[12] Now she is in the streets, now in the squares,
and lurking at every corner.
[13] So she caught him, and kissed him.
With an impudent face she said to him:
[14] “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me.
Today I have paid my vows.
[15] Therefore I came out to meet you,
to diligently seek your face,
and I have found you.
[16] I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry,
with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
[17] I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
[18] Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning.
Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
[19] For my husband isn’t at home.
He has gone on a long journey.
[20] He has taken a bag of money with him.
He will come home at the full moon.”
[21] With persuasive words, she led him astray.
With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
[22] He followed her immediately,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
as a fool stepping into a noose.
[23] Until an arrow strikes through his liver,
as a bird hurries to the snare,
and doesn’t know that it will cost his life. [24] Now therefore, sons, listen to me.
Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
[25] Don’t let your heart turn to her ways.
Don’t go astray in her paths,
[26] for she has thrown down many wounded.
Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
[27] Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the rooms of death.