My son, obey my words,
and treasure my commands.(A)
Keep my commands and live,(B)
and guard my instructions
as you would the pupil of your eye.(C)
Tie them to your fingers;
write them on the tablet of your heart.(D)
Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,”(E)
and call understanding your relative.
She will keep you from a forbidden woman,
a wayward woman with her flattering talk.(F)

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Warning Against the Strange Woman

My child, guard my sayings;
    store my commandments with you.
Keep my commands and live,
    and my teaching like the apple of your eye.[a]
Bind them on your fingers;
    write them on the tablet of your heart.
Say to wisdom,[b] “you are my sister,”
    and you shall call insight,[c]intimate friend.”[d]
In order to guard yourself from an adulteress,[e]
    from the foreigner who makes her words smooth.[f]

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 7:2 A single word meaning “pupil of the eye”
  2. Proverbs 7:4 Hebrew “the wisdom”
  3. Proverbs 7:4 Hebrew “the insight”
  4. Proverbs 7:4 Literally “one who is known.” To “know” is often a euphemism for intercourse. Therefore “intimate friend” may also be read “lover.”
  5. Proverbs 7:5 Literally “a strange woman”
  6. Proverbs 7:5 Literally “causes to be smooth her words”