7:1 Beni (my son), be shomer over my words, and treasure up my mitzvot with thee.
7:2 Be shomer over my mitzvot, and live, and over my torah as the apple of thine eye.
7:3 Bind them upon thy fingers, write them upon the luach (tablet) of thine lev.
7:4 Say unto chochmah, Thou art my achot; and call binah (understanding) thy kinsman;
7:5 That they may be shomer over thee and keep thee from the zarah, from the nokhriyah with her smooth words.
7:6 For at the chalon (window) of my bais I looked through my lattice,
7:7 And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the banim, a na’ar (young man) devoid of lev [of understanding, sense],
7:8 Passing through the street near her corner; and he went on the derech to her bais,
7:9 In the twilight, at erev, in the black and dark lailah;
7:10 And, hinei, there met him an isha with the attire of a zonah, and crafty of lev
7:11 —She is loud and soreret (rebellious, defiant); her raglayim abide not in her bais;
7:12 Now is she without, now in the rechovot, and lurketh in wait at every pinnah (corner)—
7:13 So she caught hold of him, and kissed him, and with a brazen ponem said unto him,
7:14 I have zivkhei shelamim vowed; this yom have I payed my neder.
7:15 Al ken (therefore) came I forth to meet thee, diligently to seek thy face, and I have found thee.
7:16 I have decked my bed with coverings of tapestry, with a bedspread of fine linen of Mitzrayim.
7:17 I have perfumed my mishkav (bed) with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
7:18 Come, let us take our fill of dodim (loves) until boker; let us delight ourselves with ahavim (loves, pl. of intensity).
7:19 For the ish (man, i.e., husband) is not b’bais, he is gone a derech merachok (distant journey);
7:20 He hath taken a bag of kesef with him, and will come back to his bais at the appointed time.
7:21 By her enticing speech she caused him to yield, with the smoothness of her sfatayim she seduced him.
7:22 He goeth after her and followeth immediately, as a shor (ox) goeth to tavach (stock yard, slaughter-house), or as the fettered to the musar of the fool;
7:23 Till a khetz (arrow) strike through his liver; as a tzippor hasteth to the pach (snare), and knoweth not that it is for his nefesh (life).
7:24 Pay heed unto me now therefore, O ye banim, and attend to the words of my peh (mouth).
7:25 Let not thine lev turn aside to her drakhim; go not astray in her netivot (trodden paths).
7:26 For she hath cast down many chalalim (wounded); indeed, many strong men have been slain by her.
7:27 Her bais is the drakhei Sheol, going down to the chadarim (chambers, rooms) of mavet (death). [T.N. The off-stage character here in chp 7 has been the cuckold. Because of her Ba’al affair, Hashem became the cuckold of Israel even as Hosea became the cuckold of Gomer.]
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