1: Dear friend, do what I tell you; treasure my careful instructions.
2: Do what I say and you'll live well. My teaching is as precious as your eyesight--guard it!
3: Write it out on the back of your hands; etch it on the chambers of your heart.
4: Talk to Wisdom as to a sister. Treat Insight as your companion.
5: They'll be with you to fend off the Temptress--that smooth-talking, honey--tongued Seductress.
6: As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters,
7: Watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense
8: Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived, then turning up the path to her house.
9: It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night.
10: Just then, a woman met him--she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
11: Brazen and brash she was, restless and roaming, never at home,
12: Walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town.
13: She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said,
14: "I've got all the makings for a feast--today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
15: So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face--and here you are!
16: I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens.
17: My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances.
18: Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
19: My husband's not home; he's away on business, and he won't be back for a month."
21: Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.
22: Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush
23: and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.
24: So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously.
25: Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
26: Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man.
27: She runs a halfway house to hell, fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.