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The Blue Letter Bible

Proverbs 7 :: English Standard Version (ESV)

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Warning Against the Adulteress

Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:1 - My son, keep my words
and treasure up my commandments with you;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:2 - keep my commandments and live;
keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:3 - bind them on your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:4 - Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:5 - to keep you from the forbidden[fn] woman,
from the adulteress[fn] with her smooth words.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:6 - For at the window of my house
I have looked out through my lattice,
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:7 - and I have seen among the simple,
I have perceived among the youths,
a young man lacking sense,
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:8 - passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:9 - in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:10 - And behold, the woman meets him,
dressed as a prostitute, wily of heart.[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:11 - She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:12 - now in the street, now in the market,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:13 - She seizes him and kisses him,
and with bold face she says to him,
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:14 - “I had to offer sacrifices,[fn]
and today I have paid my vows;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:15 - so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:16 - I have spread my couch with coverings,
colored linens from Egyptian linen;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:17 - I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:18 - Come, let us take our fill of love till morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:19 - For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey;
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:20 - he took a bag of money with him;
at full moon he will come home.”
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:21 - With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:22 - All at once he follows her,
as an ox goes to the slaughter,
or as a stag is caught fast[fn]
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:23 - till an arrow pierces its liver;
as a bird rushes into a snare;
he does not know that it will cost him his life.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:24 - And now, O sons, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:25 - Let not your heart turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths,
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:26 - for many a victim has she laid low,
and all her slain are a mighty throng.
Unchecked Copy BoxPro 7:27 - Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death.
ESV Footnotes
Hebrew strange
Hebrew the foreign woman
Hebrew guarded in heart
Hebrew peace offerings
Probable reading (compare Septuagint, Vulgate, Syriac); Hebrew as a chain to discipline a fool
ESV

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version copyright © 2001, 2007, 2011, 2016 by Crossway Books and Bibles, a Publishing Ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

See detailed copyright information.

For more information on this translation, see the ESV Preface.

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Proverbs Chapter 7 — Additional Translations: