1: My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with
thee. |
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2: Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of
thine eye. |
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3:
Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine
heart. |
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4: Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding
thy kinswoman: |
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5: That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the
stranger which flattereth with her words. |
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6: For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
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7: And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the
youths, a young man void of understanding, |
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8: Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the
way to her house, |
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9: In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
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10: And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an
harlot, and subtil of heart. |
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11: (She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
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12: Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at
every corner.) |
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13: So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face
said unto him, |
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14: I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my
vows. |
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15: Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy
face, and I have found thee. |
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16: I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved
works, with fine linen of Egypt. |
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17: I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
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18: Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us
solace ourselves with loves. |
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19: For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
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20: He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at
the day appointed. |
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21: With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the
flattering of her lips she forced him. |
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22: He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the
slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks; |
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23: Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to
the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life. |
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24: Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to
the words of my mouth. |
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25: Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her
paths. |
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26: For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men
have been slain by her. |
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27: Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of
death. |