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 7,19 Spr 7,19
And when they received it, they murmured against the householder,
But if that evil {Greek: bondservant.}servant shall say in his heart, My lord tarrieth;
{Or, But this ye know}But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what watch the thief was coming, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be {Greek: digged through.}broken through.
It is as when a man, sojourning in another country, having left his house, and given authority to his {Greek: bondservants.}servants, to each one his work, commanded also the porter to watch.
Watch therefore: for ye know not when the lord of the house cometh, whether at even, or at midnight, or at cockcrowing, or in the morning;
lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
{Or, But this ye know}But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming, he would have watched, and not have left his house to be {Greek: digged through.}broken through.
But if that {Greek: bondservant.}servant shall say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;
the lord of that {Greek: bondservant.}servant shall come in a day when he expecteth not, and in an hour when he knoweth not, and shall {Or, severely scourge him}cut him asunder, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful.