[20] My son, keep your father’s command and do not forsake your mother’s teaching. [21] Bind them always on your heart; fasten them around your neck. [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, and correction and instruction are the way to life, [24] keeping you from your neighbor’s wife, from the smooth talk of a wayward woman. [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. [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 sleeps with another man’s wife; 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, though it costs him all the wealth of his house. [32] But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself. [33] Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never be wiped away. [34] For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury, 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.
