OEB PRO Chapter 6

Warning against the Adulteress

20 Observe, my child, the commands of your father,

do not abandon your mother’s instruction.

21 Bind them onto your heart forever;

hang them round about your neck.

22 When you walk, Wisdom will guide you;

when you lie down, she will watch you;

when you wake up, she will talk with you.

23 For precept illumines, instruction enlightens,

and reproof that disciplines leads to life,

24 Preserving you safe from the wife of another,

from the slippery tongue of the stranger.

25 Do not long in your heart for her beauty.

Do not be caught by her eyes.

26 For, while harlotry costs but a morsel of bread,

’Tis the precious life the adulteress hunts.

27 Can a man take fire in his bosom

without his clothes being burned?

28 Or on glowing coals can he walk

without his feet being scorched?

29 So with him that approaches his neighbour’s wife:

no one that touches her ever may go unpunished.

30 Do people not despise a thief,

When he steals even to satisfy hunger?

31 When caught, he must pay seven-fold.

And give all that his house contains.

32 But the adulterer is witless:

he destroyes himself by his doings.

33 For stripes and disgrace will be his,

And a shame that will never be blotted.

34 For jealousy maddens a man;

in the day of revenge he is pitiless.

35 He will accept no ransom,

nor will gifts in profusion content him.