Proverbs 7
1 My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
My son, heed my advice, and guard my instructions [as you would] [MET] [guard] a treasure.
2 Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Obey my commands, and [as a result you will] live [a good life]. Consider the things that I teach you [to be very precious]; guard them, [just] like you protect your eyes.
3 Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Tie my commands around your fingers [in order that they will remind you to obey them]. Always keep them in mind [MET].
4 Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative,
[Love] wisdom [like you love] your sister. Understand what is wise, [and let that be as dear to you as] members of your family.
5 that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
If you are wise and if you understand what is wise [PRS], you will not [sleep with] an immoral woman; you will not listen to a woman who tries to entice you [to sleep with her] by what she says.
6 For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.
One day, I was standing at the window inside my house, and I looked outside.
7 I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
I saw some young men who did not have good sense. Among them was a man who was very foolish.
8 passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,
He crossed the street near [the house of] an immoral woman. He was walking along the path toward her house
9 in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
at twilight, when it was getting dark [DOU].
10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.
Suddenly the woman came out to see/meet him. She was dressed (seductively/like a prostitute), wanting to persuade him to sleep with her.
11 She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house.
She was a loud talker, one who was rebellious; she [SYN] never stayed at home.
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.
She often went into the city streets and plazas/markets, waiting to trap some man.
13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:
[When she saw that young man], she put her arms around him and kissed him. Then without being a bit ashamed, she said,
14 “Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows.
“I have [some meat that is left over from] a sacrifice that I made today [to maintain fellowship with Yahweh]; I have fulfilled/done what I promised him that I would do.
15 Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.
And now I have come out to meet/see you. I was searching for you, and [now] I have found you!
16 I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
I have put on my bed sheets/bedspreads that were made from [very fine] linen [that were imported] {[people brought]} from Egypt.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
I have sprinkled [sweet-smelling] perfumes on my bed— myrrh and aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come, let’s take our fill of loving until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
Come [with me]; let us enjoy having sex until [tomorrow] morning. Let’s enjoy making love.
19 For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.
My husband is not at home; he has gone away on a long journey.
20 He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.”
He is carrying a wallet filled with money, and he will not return until the middle of this month.”
21 With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
[So] she persuaded him by [her] enticing/tempting words. She allured him by her smooth/sweet talk.
22 He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into a noose.
[And] he went with her immediately, like an ox that was going to where it would be slaughtered, or like a deer (OR, a fool) that is stepping into a noose/trap,
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.
where it will remain/stay until someone shoots an arrow into its liver [and kills it]. [He was] like a bird that flew into a trap. He did not know that (it would cost him his life/he would die as a result).
24 Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
My son, listen to what I say; pay [careful] attention to my words.
25 Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,
Do not allow anything to arouse/persuade you to go with an immoral woman like that. Do not go where she goes.
26 for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
She has caused many men to be ruined; truly, no one can count the men she has killed.
