She is the beginning of all the ways of iniquity.
Woe and disaster to all who possess her!
And desolation to all who hold her!
For her ways are ways of death,
and her paths are roads of sin,
and her tracks are pathways to iniquity,
and her by-ways are rebellious wrong-doings.
Her gates are gates of death,
and from the entrance of the house
she sets out towards the underworld.
None of those who enter there will ever return,
and all who possess her will descend to the Pit.
She lies in wait in secret places,
In the city’s squares she veils herself,
and she stands at the gates of towns.
She will never rest from whoring,
her eyes glance hither and thither.
She lifts her eyelids naughtily
to stare at a virtuous one and join him,
and an important one to trip him up,
at upright men to pervert their way,
and the righteous elect to keep them from the commandment,
at the firmly established to bring them down wantonly,
and those who walk in uprightness to alter the statute.
To cause the humble to rebel against God,
and turn their steps away from the ways of justice,
to bring insolence to their heart,
so that they march no more in the paths of uprightness;
to lead men astray to the ways of the Pit,
and seduce with flatteries every son of man.