Unlike the Protestant and Catholic canons, the Ethiopian tradition (Orthodox Tewahedo Church) includes in its Old Testament a collection of wisdom writings known as 'Messalë' (መሣሌ), which corresponds to the Book of Proverbs, but with a particular order and extent. In the Ethiopian canon, Messalë is often positioned distinctly, appearing alongside other wisdom books such as Säyfon (Ecclesiasticus) and Tägsas (Wisdom of Solomon). Although the central content corresponds to the canonical Proverbs, the Ethiopian manuscript tradition preserves textual variations and a chapter organization that reflects the ancient tradition of the Church of Ethiopia. In this Ethiopian collection, Messalë corresponds specifically to chapters 1–24 of the Book of Proverbs, while chapters 25–31 are known as Tägsas.
Messalë (Provérbios 1–24)
Chapter 7 — Warning Against the Adulteress
My son, keep my words. Lay up my commandments within you.
Keep my commandments and live! Guard my teaching as the apple of your eye.
Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.
Tell wisdom, “You are my sister.” Call understanding your relative,
that they may keep you from the strange woman, from the foreigner who flatters with her words.
For at the window of my house, I looked out through my lattice.
I saw among the simple ones. I discerned among the youths a young man void of understanding,
passing through the street near her corner, he went the way to her house,
in the twilight, in the evening of the day, in the middle of the night and in the darkness.
Behold, there a woman met him with the attire of a prostitute, and with crafty intent.
She is loud and defiant. Her feet don’t stay in her house.
Now she is in the streets, now in the squares, and lurking at every corner.
So she caught him, and kissed him. With an impudent face she said to him:
“Sacrifices of peace offerings are with me. Today I have paid my vows.
Therefore I came out to meet you, to diligently seek your face, and I have found you.
I have spread my couch with carpets of tapestry, with striped cloths of the yarn of Egypt.
I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon.
Come, let’s take our fill of love until the morning. Let’s solace ourselves with loving.
For my husband isn’t at home. He has gone on a long journey.
He has taken a bag of money with him. He will come home at the full moon.”
With persuasive words, she led him astray. With the flattering of her lips, she seduced him.
He followed her immediately, as an ox goes to the slaughter, as a fool stepping into the fetters for the discipline of his folly,
until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost his life.
Now therefore, sons, listen to me. Pay attention to the words of my mouth.
Don’t let your heart turn to her ways. Don’t go astray in her paths,
for she has thrown down many wounded. Yes, all her slain are a mighty army.
Her house is the way to Sheol, going down to the rooms of death.