Proverbs

¹ treasure my careful instructions.

² My teaching is as precious as your eyesight—guard it!

³ etch it on the chambers of your heart.

⁴ Treat Insight as your companion.

⁵ that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.

⁶ looking out through the shutters,

⁷ I spotted a young man without any sense

⁸ then turning up the path to her house.

⁹ the darkness thickening into night.

¹⁰ she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.

¹¹ restless and roaming, never at home,

¹² hanging out at every corner in town.

¹³ boldly took his arm and said,

¹⁴ today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,

¹⁵ hoping to catch sight of your face—and here you are!

¹⁶ colorful imported linens.

¹⁷ and exotic fragrances.

¹⁸ spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!

¹⁹ and he won't be back for a month."

²¹ bewitched by her honeyed speech.

²² like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush

²³ Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.

²⁴ take these words of mine most seriously.

²⁵ don't even stroll through her neighborhood.

²⁶ she's the death of many a poor man.

²⁷ fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.