7
More warnings about adultery
1 My son, heed my advice,
and guard my instructions as you would [MET] guard a treasure.
2 Obey my commands,
and as a result you will live a good life.
Consider the things that I teach you to be very precious to you;
guard them, just like you protect your eyes.
3 Tie my commands around your fingers in order that they will remind you to obey them.
Keep them in your inner being [MET].
4 Love wisdom like you love your sister.
Understand what is wise,
and let that be as dear to you as members of your family.
5 If you are wise and if you understand what is wise [PRS], you will not sleep with an immoral woman;
you will not listen to a woman who tries to entice you to sleep with her by what she says.
6 One day, I was standing at the window inside my house,
and I looked outside.
7 I saw some young men who did not have good sense.
Among them was a man who was very foolish.
8 He crossed the street near the house of an immoral woman.
He was walking along the path toward her house
9 at twilight, when it was getting dark [DOU].
10 Suddenly the woman came out to see/meet him.
She was dressed ◄seductively/like a prostitute►, intending to persuade him to sleep with her.
11 She was a loud talker, one who was rebellious;
she [SYN] never stayed at home.
12 She often went into the city streets and plazas/markets,
waiting to trap some man.
13 When she saw that young man, she put her arms around him and kissed him.
Then without being a bit ashamed, she said,
14 “I have some meat that is left over from a sacrifice that I made today to restore fellowship with Yahweh;
I have fulfilled/done what I promised him that I would do.
15 And now I have come out to meet/see you.
I was searching for you and now I have found you!
16 I have put on my bed sheets/bedspreads that were made from very fine linen that were imported { people brought} from Egypt.
17 I have sprinkled sweet-smelling perfumes on my bed—
myrrh and aloes and cinnamon.
18 Come with me; let us enjoy having sex until tomorrow morning.
Let's enjoy making love.
19 My husband is not at home;
he has gone away on a long journey.
20 He is carrying a wallet filled with money,
and he will not return until the middle of this month.”
21 So she persuaded him by her enticing/tempting words.
She allured him by her smooth/sweet talk.
22 And he went with her immediately,
like an ox that was going to where it would be slaughtered,
or like a deer (OR, a fool) that is stepping into a noose/trap,
23 where it will remain/stay until someone shoots an arrow into its liver and kills it.
He was like a bird that flew into a trap.
He did not know that ◄it would cost him his life/he would die as a result►.
24 My son, listen to what I say;
pay careful attention to my words.
25 Do not allow your inner being to arouse/persuade you to go with an immoral woman like that.
Do not go where she goes.
26 She has caused many men to be ruined;
truly, no one can count the men she has killed.
27 The road to her house is the road to the grave.
Those who enter her bedroom [PRS] will die as a result.
Note: The Old Testament in this translation is still being worked on, and is in draft form. Updates will be posted at eBible.org/t4t/.