My son, keep my words,
And lay up my commandments with thee.
Keep my commandments and live;
And my {Or, teaching}law as the apple of thine eye.
Bind them upon thy fingers;
Write them upon the tablet of thy heart.
Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister;
And call understanding thy {Or, familiar friend}kinswoman:
That they may keep thee from the strange woman,
From the foreigner that {Hebrew: maketh smooth her words.}flattereth with her words.
For at the window of my house
I looked forth through my lattice;
And I beheld among the simple ones,
I discerned among the youths,
A young man void of understanding,
Passing through the street near her corner;
And he went the way to her house,
In the twilight, in the evening of the day,
In the {Hebrew: pupil (of the eye).}middle of the night and in the darkness.
And, behold, there met him a woman
With the attire of a harlot, and {Or, close Hebrew: guarded.}wily of heart.
(She is {Or, turbulent}clamorous and wilful;
Her feet abide not in her house:
Now she is in the streets, now in the broad places,
And lieth in wait at every corner.)
So she caught him, and kissed him,
{Hebrew: She hardened her face, and said.}And with an impudent face she said unto him:
Sacrifices of peace-offerings {Or, were due from me}are with me;
This day have I paid my vows.
Therefore came I forth to meet thee,
Diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
I have spread my couch with {Or, cushion}carpets of tapestry,
With striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
I have {Or, sprinkled}perfumed my bed
With myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning;
Let us solace ourselves with loves.
For the man is not at home;
He is gone a long journey:
He hath taken a bag of money with him;
He will come home at the full moon.
With her much fair speech she causeth him to yield;
With the flattering of her lips she forceth him along.
He goeth after her {Hebrew: suddenly.}straightway,
As an ox goeth to the slaughter,
Or as one in {The Hebrew is obsure.}fetters to the correction of the fool;
Till an arrow strike through his liver;
As a bird hasteth to the snare,
And knoweth not that it is for his life.
Now therefore, my sons, hearken unto me,
And attend to the words of my mouth.
Let not thy heart decline to her ways;
Go not astray in her paths.
For she hath cast down many wounded:
Yea, all her slain are a mighty host.
Her house is the way to Sheol,
Going down to the chambers of death.
Querverweise zu Sprüche 7,10 Spr 7,10
And she put off from her the garments of her widowhood, and covered herself with her veil, and wrapped herself, and sat in the gate of Enaim, which is by the way to Timnah; for she saw that Shelah was grown up, and she was not given unto him to wife.
Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of {Or, all the trees}any tree of the garden?
When Judah saw her, he thought her to be a harlot; for she had covered her face.
For I am jealous over you with {Greek: a jealously of God.}a godly jealousy: for I espoused you to one husband, that I might present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
And it came to pass, when Joram saw Jehu, that he said, Is it peace, Jehu? And he answered, What peace, so long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so many?
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve in his craftiness, your {Greek: thoughts. See chapter 3:14.}minds should be corrupted from the simplicity and the purity that is toward Christ.
And when Jehu was come to Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it; and she painted her eyes, and attired her head, and looked out at the window.
Moreover Jehovah said, Because the daughters of Zion are haughty, and walk with outstretched necks and wanton eyes, walking and mincing as they go, and making a tinkling with their feet;
therefore the Lord will smite with a scab the crown of the head of the daughters of Zion, and Jehovah will lay bare their secret parts.
In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, and the {Or, networks}cauls, and the crescents;
the pendants, and the {Or, chains}bracelets, and the mufflers;
the headtires, and the ankle chains, and the sashes, and the perfume-boxes, and the amulets;
the rings, and the nose-jewels;
the festival robes, and the mantles, and the shawls, and the satchels;
the hand-mirrors, and the fine linen, and the turbans, and the veils.
And it shall come to pass, that instead of sweet spices there shall be rottenness; and instead of a girdle, a rope; and instead of well set hair, baldness; and instead of a robe, a girding of sackcloth; branding instead of beauty.
Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten; make sweet melody, sing many songs, that thou mayest be remembered.
And thou, when thou art made desolate, what wilt thou do? Though thou clothest thyself with scarlet, though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, though thou {Hebrew: rendest.}enlargest thine eyes with paint, in vain dost thou make thyself fair; thy lovers despise thee, they seek thy life.
In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefastness and sobriety; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment;
And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness: and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast, {Or, names full of blasphemy}full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and {Greek: gilded.}decked with gold and precious stone and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations, {Or, and of the unclean things}even the unclean things of her fornication,
and upon her forehead a name written, {Or, a mystery, Babylon the Great}MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.