1 My son, pay close attentionand don't forgetwhat I tell you to do.
2 Obey me, and you will live!Let my instructions beyour greatest treasure.
3 Keep them at your fingertipsand write themin your mind.
4 Let wisdom be your sisterand make common senseyour closest friend.
5 They will protect youfrom the flattering wordsof someone else's wife.
6 From the window of my house,I once happened to see
7 some foolish young men.
8 It was late in the evening,sometime after dark.
9 One of these young menturned the cornerand was walking by the houseof an unfaithful wife.
10 She was dressed fancylike a woman of the streetwith only one thing in mind.
11 She was one of those womenwho are loud and restlessand never stay at home,
12 who walk street after street,waiting to trap a man.
13 She grabbed him and kissed him,and with no sense of shame,she said:
14 “I had to offer a sacrifice,and there is enough meatleft over for a feast.
15 So I came looking for you,and here you are!
16 The sheets on my bedare bright-colored clothfrom Egypt.
17 And I have covered itwith perfume made of myrrh,aloes, and cinnamon.
18 “Let's go thereand make love all night.
19 My husband is traveling,and he's far away.
20 He took a lot of money along,and he won't be back homebefore the middleof the month.”
21 And so, she tricked himwith all of her sweet talkand her flattery.
22 At once he followed herlike an ox on the wayto be slaughtered,or like a fool on the wayto be punished
23 and killed with arrows.He was no more than a birdrushing into a trap,without knowingit would cost him his life.
24 My son, pay close attentionto what I have said.
25 Don't even think aboutthat kind of womanor let yourself be misledby someone like her.
26 Such a woman has causedthe downfall and destructionof a lot of men.
27 Her house is a one-way streetleading straight downto the world of the dead.