Hebrew Names Version HNV
The Message Bible MSG
1 My son, keep my words. Lay up my mitzvot within you.
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Dear friend, do what I tell you; treasure my careful instructions.
2 Keep my mitzvot and live; Guard my teaching as the apple 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 Tell wisdom, "You are my sister." Call understanding your relative,
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Talk to Wisdom as to a sister. Treat Insight as your companion.
5 That they may keep you from the strange woman, From the foreigner who flatters with her words.
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They'll be with you to fend off the Temptress - that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.
6 For at the window of my house, I looked forth through my lattice.
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As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters,
7 I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
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Watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense
8 Passing through the street near her corner, He went the way 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 twilight, in the evening of the day, In the middle of the night and in the darkness.
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It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night.
10 Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, And with crafty intent.
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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 loud and defiant. Her feet don't stay in her house.
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Brazen and brash she was, restless and roaming, never at home,
12 Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, And lurking at every corner.
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Walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town.
13 So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:
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She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said,
14 "Sacrifices of peace-offerings are with me. This day I have paid my vows.
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"I've got all the makings for a feast - today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
15 Therefore I came out to meet you, To diligently seek your face, 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 have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, With striped cloths of the yarn of Mitzrayim.
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I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens.
17 I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
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My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances.
18 Come, let's take our fill of loving until the morning. Let's solace ourselves with loving.
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Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
19 For my husband isn't at home. He has gone on a long journey.
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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 has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon."
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21 With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
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Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.
22 He followed her immediately, As an ox goes to the slaughter, As a fool stepping into a noose.
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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 strikes through his liver, As a bird hurries to the snare, And doesn't know that it will cost 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 therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
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So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously.
25 Don't let your heart turn to her ways. Don't go astray in her paths,
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Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
26 For she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty host.
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Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man.
27 Her house is the way to She'ol, 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.
The Hebrew Names Version is in the public domain.
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.