Proverbs 6:20–35

WARNING AGAINST ADULTERY

²⁰My son, keep your father’s command,

and don’t reject your mother’s teaching.^ad

²¹Always bind them to your heart;

tie them around your neck.^ae

²²When you walk here and there, they will guide you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

when you wake up, they will talk to you.

²³For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,^af

and corrective discipline is the way to life.^ag

²⁴They will protect you from an evil woman,^A

from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.^ah

²⁵Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty^a

or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.^b

²⁶For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^B

but the wife of another man^C goes after a precious life.^c

²⁷Can a man embrace fire

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Can a man walk on burning coals

without scorching his feet?

²⁹So it is with the one who sleeps with

another man’s wife;

no one who touches her will go unpunished.^d

³⁰People don’t despise the thief if he steals

to satisfy himself when he is hungry.^e

³¹Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much;^f

he must give up all the wealth in his house.

³²The one who commits adultery^D lacks sense;

whoever does so destroys himself.^g

³³He will get a beating^E and dishonor,

and his disgrace will never be removed.

³⁴For jealousy enrages a husband,^h

and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will not be appeased by anything

or be persuaded by lavish bribes.