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7My child, keep my words
and store up my commandments with you;
²keep my commandments and live,
keep my teachings as the apple of your eye;
³bind them on your fingers,
write them on the tablet of your heart.
⁴Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”
and call insight your intimate friend,
⁵that they may keep you from the loose woman,
from the adulteress with her smooth words. ⁶For at the window of my house
I looked out through my lattice,
⁷and I saw among the simple ones,
I observed among the youths,
a young man without sense,
⁸passing along the street near her corner,
taking the road to her house
⁹in the twilight, in the evening,
at the time of night and darkness. ¹⁰Then a woman comes toward him,
decked out like a prostitute, wily of heart.
¹¹She is loud and wayward;
her feet do not stay at home;
¹²now in the street, now in the squares,
and at every corner she lies in wait.
¹³She seizes him and kisses him,
and with impudent face she says to him:
¹⁴“I had to offer sacrifices,
and today I have paid my vows;
¹⁵so now I have come out to meet you,
to seek you eagerly, and I have found you!
¹⁶I have decked my couch with coverings,
colored spreads of Egyptian linen;
¹⁷I have perfumed my bed with myrrh,
aloes, and cinnamon.
¹⁸Come, let us take our fill of love until morning;
let us delight ourselves with love.
¹⁹For my husband is not at home;
he has gone on a long journey.
²⁰He took a bag of money with him;
he will not come home until full moon.” ²¹With much seductive speech she persuades him;
with her smooth talk she compels him.
²²Right away he follows her,
and goes like an ox to the slaughter,
or bounds like a stag toward the trap
²³until an arrow pierces its entrails.
He is like a bird rushing into a snare,
not knowing that it will cost him his life. ²⁴And now, my children, listen to me,
and be attentive to the words of my mouth.
²⁵Do not let your hearts turn aside to her ways;
do not stray into her paths.
²⁶for many are those she has laid low,
and numerous are her victims.
²⁷Her house is the way to Sheol,
going down to the chambers of death. 8Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?
²On the heights, beside the way,
at the crossroads she takes her stand;
³beside the gates in front of the town,
at the entrance of the portals she cries out:
⁴“To you, O people, I call,
and my cry is to all that live.
⁵O simple ones, learn prudence;
acquire intelligence, you who lack it.
⁶Hear, for I will speak noble things,
and from my lips will come what is right;
⁷for my mouth will utter truth;
wickedness is an abomination to my lips.
⁸All the words of my mouth are righteous;
there is nothing twisted or crooked in them.
⁹They are all straight to one who understands
and right to those who find knowledge.
¹⁰Take my instruction instead of silver,
and knowledge rather than choice gold;
¹¹for wisdom is better than jewels,
and all that you may desire cannot compare with her.
¹²I, wisdom, live with prudence,
and I attain knowledge and discretion.
¹³The fear of the Lord is hatred of evil.
Pride and arrogance and the way of evil
and perverted speech I hate.
¹⁴I have good advice and sound wisdom;
I have insight, I have strength.
¹⁵By me kings reign,
and rulers decree what is just;
¹⁶by me rulers rule,
and nobles, all who govern rightly.
¹⁷I love those who love me,
and those who seek me diligently find me.
¹⁸Riches and honor are with me,
enduring wealth and prosperity.
¹⁹My fruit is better than gold, even fine gold,
and my yield than choice silver.
²⁰I walk in the way of righteousness,
along the paths of justice,
²¹endowing with wealth those who love me,
and filling their treasuries.

²²The Lord created me at the beginning of his work,
the first of his acts of long ago.
²³Ages ago I was set up,
at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
²⁴When there were no depths I was brought forth,
when there were no springs abounding with water.
²⁵Before the mountains had been shaped,
before the hills, I was brought forth—
²⁶when he had not yet made earth and fields,
or the world’s first bits of soil.
²⁷When he established the heavens, I was there,
when he drew a circle on the face of the deep,
²⁸when he made firm the skies above,
when he established the fountains of the deep,
²⁹when he assigned to the sea its limit,
so that the waters might not transgress his command,
when he marked out the foundations of the earth, ³⁰then I was beside him, like a master worker;
and I was daily his delight,
rejoicing before him always,
³¹rejoicing in his inhabited world
and delighting in the human race. ³²“And now, my children, listen to me:
happy are those who keep my ways.
³³Hear instruction and be wise,
and do not neglect it.
³⁴Happy is the one who listens to me,
watching daily at my gates,
waiting beside my doors.
³⁵For whoever finds me finds life
and obtains favor from the Lord;
³⁶but those who miss me injure themselves;
all who hate me love death.”