The Mind of God Sundays: Proverbs 7

Proverbs 7 (English Standard Version)

¹My son, keep my words

and treasure up my commandments with you;
²keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
³bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴Say to wisdom, "You are my sister,"
and call insight your intimate friend,
⁵to keep you from the forbidden woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words.

⁶For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,
⁷and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
⁸passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
⁹in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.

¹⁰And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.
¹¹She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
¹²now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
¹³She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
¹⁴"I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
¹⁶I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;
²⁰he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home."

²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
²²All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast
²³till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.

²⁴And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,
²⁶for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.