Warnings against Adultery

20 My son, keep your father’s commandment, and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.

21 Bind them always upon your heart; tie them around your neck.

22 When you walk, they will guide you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; when you awake, they will speak to you.

23 For this commandment is a lamp, this teaching [is] a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way to life,

24 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.[fn]

25 Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.[fn]

26 For the levy of the prostitute is poverty and the adulteress preys upon your very life.

27 Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can a man walk on hot coals without scorching his feet?

29 So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

30 [Men] do not despise the thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger.

31 Yet if caught, he must pay sevenfold he must give up all the wealth of his house.

32 He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

33 Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.

34 For jealousy enrages a husband and he will show no mercy in the day of vengeance.

35 He will not be appeased by any ransom, [or] persuaded by lavish gifts.