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.