## The Adulteress' Trap 

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My son, keep my words And treasure my commandments within you. 

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Keep my commandments and live, And my law as the apple of your eye. 

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Bind them on your fingers; Write them on the tablet of your heart. 

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Say to wisdom, "You are my sister," And call understanding _your_ intimate friend; 

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In order to keep you from the strange woman, From the foreign woman who flatters with her words. 

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For at the window of my house I looked out through my lattice, 

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And I saw among the simple, _And_ discerned among the sons A young man lacking a heart _of wisdom_, 

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Passing through the street near her corner; And he strides along the way to her house, 

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In the twilight, in the evening of _that_ day, In the middle of the night, and _in_ the thick darkness. 

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And behold, a woman _comes_ to meet him, Dressed as a harlot and cunning of heart. 

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She is boisterous and rebellious, Her feet do not dwell at home; 

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Stepping in the streets, stepping in the squares, And near every corner she lies in wait. 

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So she seizes him and kisses him And with a brazen face she says to him: 

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"The sacrifices of peace offerings are with me; Today I paid my vows. 

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Therefore I have come out to meet you, To seek your face earnestly, and I have found you. 

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I have spread my couch with coverings, With colored linens of Egypt. 

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I have sprinkled my bed With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 

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Come, then, let us drink our fill as lovers until morning; Let us delight ourselves with the pleasures of love. 

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For my husband is not at home, He has gone on a journey far away; 

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He took a bag of silver in his hand, On the day of the full moon he will come home." 

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With her abundant persuasions she entices him; With her flattering lips she drives him _to herself_. 

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He suddenly follows her As an ox goes to the slaughter, Or as _one in_ fetters to the discipline of an ignorant fool, 

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Until an arrow pierces through his liver; As a bird hastens to the snare, And he does not know that it _will cost him_ his soul. 

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So now, _my_ sons, listen to me, And pay attention to the words of my mouth. 

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Do not let your heart go astray into her ways, Do not wander into her pathways. 

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For many are the slain _whom_ she has cast down, And numerous are all those killed by her. 

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The ways to Sheol _are in_ her house, Descending to the chambers of death.