Proverbs 7

Contemporary English Version

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 men
    turned the corner
and was walking by the house
    of an unfaithful wife.
¹⁰ She was dressed fancy
like a woman of the street
    with only one thing in mind.
¹¹ She was one of those women
who are loud and restless
    and 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 meat
    left over for a feast.
¹⁵ So I came looking for you,
    and here you are!
¹⁶ The sheets on my bed
are bright-colored cloth
    from Egypt.
¹⁷ And I have covered it
with perfume made of myrrh,
    aloes, and cinnamon.

¹⁸ “Let's go there
    and 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 home
before the middle
    of the month.”

²¹ And so, she tricked him
with all of her sweet talk
    and her flattery.
²² At once he followed her
like an ox on the way
    to be slaughtered,
or like a fool on the way
to be punished^[a]
23     and killed with arrows.
He was no more than a bird
    rushing into a trap,
without knowing
    it would cost him his life.

²⁴ My son, pay close attention
    to what I have said.
²⁵ Don't even think about
    that kind of woman
or let yourself be misled
    by someone like her.
²⁶ Such a woman has caused
the downfall and destruction
    of a lot of men.
²⁷ Her house is a one-way street
leading straight down
    to the world of the dead.