Proverbs 7

New Revised Standard Version Catholic Edition

⁶ For at the window of my house
    I looked out through my lattice,
⁷ and I saw among the simple ones,
    I observed among the youths,
    a young man without sense,
⁸ passing along the street near her corner,
    taking the road to her house
⁹ in the twilight, in the evening,
    at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰ Then a woman comes toward him,
    decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.^[b]
11 She is loud and wayward;
    her feet do not stay at home;
¹² now in the street, now in the squares,
    and at every corner she lies in wait.
¹³ She seizes him and kisses him,
    and with impudent face she says to him:
¹⁴ “I had to offer sacrifices,
    and today I have paid my vows;
¹⁵ so now I have come out to meet you,
    to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!
¹⁶ I have decked my couch with coverings,
    colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
¹⁷ I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸ Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
    let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹ For my husband is not at home;
    he has gone on a long journey.
²⁰ He took a bag of money with him;
    he will not come home until full moon.”

²¹ With much seductive speech she persuades him;
    with her smooth talk she compels him.
²² Right away he follows her,
    and goes like an ox to the slaughter,
or bounds like a stag toward the trap^[c]
23     until an arrow pierces its entrails.
He is like a bird rushing into a snare,
    not knowing that it will cost him his life.

²⁴ And now, my children, listen to me,
    and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵ Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;
    do not stray into her paths.
²⁶ For many are those she has laid low,
    and numerous are her victims.
²⁷ Her house is the way to Sheol,
    going down to the chambers of death.