Provérbios 7

¹ My sonne, keepe my wordes, & hide my commandements with thee.

² Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as theBy this diversity of words, he means that nothing should be so dear to us as the word of God, nor that we look on anything more nor mind anything so much.apple of thy eye.

³ Binde them vpon thy fingers, and write them vpon the table of thine heart.

⁴ Say vnto wisedome, Thou art my sister: and call vnderstanding thy kinswoman,

⁵ That they may keepe thee from the strange woman, euen from the stranger that is smoothe in her wordes.

⁶ Solomon uses this parable to declare their folly, who allow themselves to be abused by harlots.For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,

⁷ And I sawe among the fooles, and considered among the children a yong man destitute of vnderstanding,

⁸ Who passed through the streete by her corner, and went toward her house,

⁹ In the twilight, in the evening, in theHe shows that there was almost no one so impudent that they were not afraid to be seen, their consciences accusing them and causing them to seek the night to cover their filthiness.black and dark night:

¹⁰ And beholde, there met him a woman with an harlots behauiour, and subtill in heart.

¹¹ (SheHe describes certain conditions, which are peculiar to harlots.[is] loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:

¹² Nowe she is without, nowe in the streetes, and lyeth in waite at euery corner)

¹³ So she caught him & kissed him and with an impudent face said vnto him,

¹⁴ [I have]Because in peace offerings a portion is returned to them that offered, she shows him that she has meat at home to make good cheer with or else she would use some cloak of holiness till she had gotten him in her snares.peace offerings with me; thisWhich declares that harlots outwardly will seem holy and religious: both because they may better deceive others, and also thinking to observe ceremonies and offerings to make satisfaction for their sins.day have I paid my vows.

¹⁵ Therefore came I forth to meete thee, that I might seeke thy face: and I haue found thee.

¹⁶ I haue deckt my bed with ornaments, carpets and laces of Egypt.

¹⁷ I haue perfumed my bedde with myrrhe, aloes, and cynamom.

¹⁸ Come, let vs take our fill of loue vntill the morning: let vs take our pleasure in daliance.

¹⁹ For mine husbande is not at home: he is gone a iourney farre off.

²⁰ He hath taken with him a bagge of siluer, and will come home at the day appointed.

²¹ Thus with her great craft she caused him to yeelde, and with her flattering lips she entised him.

²² He goeth after her quickly, as anWhich thinking he goes to the pasture goes willingly to his own destruction.ox goeth to the slaughter, orWho goes cheerfully, not knowing that he will be chastised.as a fool to the correction of the stocks;

²³ Till a dart strike through his liuer, as a bird hasteth to the snare, not knowing that he is in danger.

²⁴ Heare me now therefore, O children, and hearken to the wordes of my mouth.

²⁵ Let not thine heart decline to her wayes: wander thou not in her paths.

²⁶ For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, manyNeither wit nor strength can deliver them who fall into the hands of the harlot.strong [men] have been slain by her.

²⁷ Her house is the way vnto ye graue, which goeth downe to the chambers of death.