Warning Against Adultery

20 My son,j keep your father’s command

and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.k

21 Bind them always on your heart;

fasten them around your neck.l

22 When you walk, they will guide you;

when you sleep, they will watch over you;

when you awake, they will speak to you.

23 For this command is a lamp,

this teaching is a light,m

and correction and instruction

are the way to life,n

24 keeping you from your neighbor’s wife,

from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.o

25 Do not lust in your heart after her beauty

or let her captivate you with her eyes.

26 For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,

but another man’s wife preys on your very life.p

27 Can a man scoop fire into his lap

without his clothes being burned?

28 Can a man walk on hot coals

without his feet being scorched?

29 So is he who sleepsq with another man’s wife;r

no one who touches her will go unpunished.

30 People do not despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.

31 Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,s

though it costs him all the wealth of his house.

32 But a man who commits adulteryt has no sense;u

whoever does so destroys himself.

33 Blows and disgrace are his lot,

and his shame will neverv be wiped away.

34 For jealousyw arouses a husband’s fury,x

and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.

35 He will not accept any compensation;

he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.y