Common English Bible CEB
The Message Bible MSG
1 My son, keep my words; store up my commands within you.
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Dear friend, do what I tell you; treasure my careful instructions.
2 Keep my commands and live, and my instruction like the pupil of your eye.
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Do what I say and you'll live well. My teaching is as precious as your eyesight - guard it!
3 Bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart.
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Write it out on the back of your hands; etch it on the chambers of your heart.
4 Say to wisdom, "You are my sister"; call understanding "friend,"
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Talk to Wisdom as to a sister. Treat Insight as your companion.
5 so she might guard you against the mysterious woman, from the foreign woman who flatters you.
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They'll be with you to fend off the Temptress - that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.
6 When from the window of my house, from behind the screen, I gazed down,
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As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters,
7 I looked among the naive young men and noticed among the youth, one who had no sense.
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Watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense
8 He was crossing the street at her corner and walked down the path to her house
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Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived, then turning up the path to her house.
9 in the early evening, at the onset of night and darkness.
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It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night.
10 All of a sudden a woman approaches him, dressed like a prostitute and with a cunning mind.
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Just then, a woman met him - she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
11 She is noisy and defiant; her feet don't stay long in her own house.
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Brazen and brash she was, restless and roaming, never at home,
12 She has one foot in the street, one foot in the public square. She lies in wait at every corner.
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Walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town.
13 She grabs him and kisses him. Her face is brazen as she speaks to him:
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She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said,
14 "I've made a sacrifice of well-being; today I fulfilled my solemn promises.
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"I've got all the makings for a feast - today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
15 So I've come out to meet you, seeking you, and I have found you.
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So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face - and here you are!
16 I've spread my bed with luxurious covers, with colored linens from Egypt.
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I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens.
17 I've sprinkled my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
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My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances.
18 Come, let's drink deep of love until morning; let's savor our lovemaking.
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Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
19 For my husband isn't home; he's gone far away.
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My husband's not home; he's away on business, and he won't be back for a month."
20 He took a pouch of money with him; he won't come home till full moon."
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21 She seduces him with all her talk. She entices him with her flattery.
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Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.
22 He goes headlong after her, like an ox to the slaughter, like a deer leaping into a trap,
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Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush
23 until an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird hurrying to the snare, not aware that it will cost him his life.
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and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.
24 Now children, listen to me, and pay attention to my speech.
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So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously.
25 Don't turn your heart to her ways; don't wander down her paths.
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Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
26 She has caused many corpses to fall; she has killed many people.
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Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man.
27 Her house is a path to the grave, going down to the chambers of death.
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She runs a halfway house to hell, fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.