Proverbs 6:20–35

²⁰My son, keep your father’s commandment,

and forsake not your mother’s teaching.

²¹Bind them upon your heart always;

tie them about your neck.

²²When you walk, they will lead you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

and when you awake, they will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,

and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

²⁴to preserve you from the evil woman,

from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.

²⁵Do not desire her beauty in your heart,

and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;

²⁶for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,

but an adulteress stalks a man’s very life.

²⁷Can a man carry fire in his bosom

and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk upon hot coals

and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;

none who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰Do not men despise a thief if he steals

to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?

³¹And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;

he will give all the goods of his house.

³²He who commits adultery has no sense;

he who does it destroys himself.

³³Wounds and dishonor will he get,

and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy makes a man furious,

and he will not spare when he takes revenge.

³⁵He will accept no compensation,

nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.