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Love wisdom like a sister;
    make insight a beloved member of your family.
Let them protect you from an affair with an immoral woman,
    from listening to the flattery of a promiscuous woman.

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Say to wisdom,[a] “you are my sister,”
    and you shall call insight,[b]intimate friend.”[c]
In order to guard yourself from an adulteress,[d]
    from the foreigner who makes her words smooth.[e]

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Footnotes

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

21 So she seduced him with her pretty speech
    and enticed him with her flattery.

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21 She persuades him with the greatness of her teachings;
    with her smooth lips she compels him.

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28 A lying tongue hates its victims,
    and flattering words cause ruin.

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28 A tongue of deceit hates its victim,
    and a flattering mouth makes ruin.

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23 In the end, people appreciate honest criticism
    far more than flattery.

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23 He who rebukes a person will afterward find more favor
    than he who flatters with the tongue.

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To flatter friends
    is to lay a trap for their feet.

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A strong man who flatters his neighbor
    is spreading a net for his feet.

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