The Message Bible MSG
King James Version KJV
1 Dear friend, do what I tell you; treasure my careful instructions.
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My son, keep my words, and lay up my commandments with thee.
2 Do what I say and you'll live well. My teaching is as precious as your eyesight - guard it!
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Keep my commandments, and live; and my law as the apple of thine eye.
3 Write it out on the back of your hands; etch it on the chambers of your heart.
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Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the table of thine heart.
4 Talk to Wisdom as to a sister. Treat Insight as your companion.
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Say unto wisdom, Thou art my sister; and call understanding thy kinswoman:
5 They'll be with you to fend off the Temptress - that smooth-talking, honey-tongued Seductress.
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That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words.
6 As I stood at the window of my house looking out through the shutters,
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For at the window of my house I looked through my casement,
7 Watching the mindless crowd stroll by, I spotted a young man without any sense
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And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding,
8 Arriving at the corner of the street where she lived, then turning up the path to her house.
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Passing through the street near her corner; and he went the way to her house,
9 It was dusk, the evening coming on, the darkness thickening into night.
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In the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark night:
10 Just then, a woman met him - she'd been lying in wait for him, dressed to seduce him.
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And, behold, there met him a woman with the attire of an harlot, and subtil of heart.
11 Brazen and brash she was, restless and roaming, never at home,
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(She is loud and stubborn; her feet abide not in her house:
12 Walking the streets, loitering in the mall, hanging out at every corner in town.
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Now is she without, now in the streets, and lieth in wait at every corner.)
13 She threw her arms around him and kissed him, boldly took his arm and said,
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So she caught him, and kissed him, and with an impudent face said unto him,
14 "I've got all the makings for a feast - today I made my offerings, my vows are all paid,
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I have peace offerings with me; this day have I payed my vows.
15 So now I've come to find you, hoping to catch sight of your face - and here you are!
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Therefore came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
16 I've spread fresh, clean sheets on my bed, colorful imported linens.
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I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with carved works, with fine linen of Egypt.
17 My bed is aromatic with spices and exotic fragrances.
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I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
18 Come, let's make love all night, spend the night in ecstatic lovemaking!
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Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.
19 My husband's not home; he's away on business, and he won't be back for a month."
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For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:
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He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.
21 Soon she has him eating out of her hand, bewitched by her honeyed speech.
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With her much fair speech she caused him to yield, with the flattering of her lips she forced him.
22 Before you know it, he's trotting behind her, like a calf led to the butcher shop, Like a stag lured into ambush
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He goeth after her straightway, as an ox goeth to the slaughter, or as a fool to the correction of the stocks;
23 and then shot with an arrow, Like a bird flying into a net not knowing that its flying life is over.
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Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
24 So, friends, listen to me, take these words of mine most seriously.
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Hearken unto me now therefore, O ye children, and attend to the words of my mouth.
25 Don't fool around with a woman like that; don't even stroll through her neighborhood.
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Let not thine heart decline to her ways, go not astray in her paths.
26 Countless victims come under her spell; she's the death of many a poor man.
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For she hath cast down many wounded: yea, many strong men have been slain by her.
27 She runs a halfway house to hell, fits you out with a shroud and a coffin.
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Her house is the way to hell, going down to the chambers of death.
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.
The King James Version is in the public domain.