OET-RV SIR Chapter 23

7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of the mouth.

He who keeps it won’t be caught.

8 The sinner will be overpowered through his lips.

By them, the insulter and the arrogant will stumble.

9 Don’t accustom your mouth to an oath,

and don’t be accustomed to naming the Holy One,

10 for as a servant who’s continually scourged won’t lack bruises,

so he also who swears and continually utters the Name won’t be cleansed from sin.

11 A man of many oaths will be filled with iniquity.

The scourge won’t depart from his house.

If he offends, his sin will be on him.

If he disregards it, he’s sinned doubly.

If he’s sworn falsely, he won’t be justified,

for his house will be filled with calamities.

12 There’s a manner of speech that’s clothed with death.

Let it not be found in the heritage of Ya’akov (Jacob),

for all these things will be far from the godly,

and they won’t wallow in sins.

13 Don’t accustom your mouth to gross rudeness,

for it involves sinful speech.

14 Remember your father and your mother,

for you sit among great men,

that you be not forgetful before them,

and become a fool by your bad habit;

so you may wish that you hadn’t been born,

and curse the day of your birth.

15 A man who’s accustomed to abusive language

won’t be corrected all the days of his life.

16 Two sorts of people multiply sins,

and the third will bring anger:

a hot passion, like a burning fire, won’t be quenched until it’s consumed;

a fornicator in the body of his flesh will never cease until he has burnt out the fire.

17 All bread is sweet to a fornicator.

He won’t cease until he dies.

18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed

says in his heart, “Who sees me?

Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me.

No one sees me. Of whom am I afraid?

The Most High won’t remember my sins.”

19 Men’s eyes are his terror.

He doesn’t know that the master’s eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the sun,

seeing all the ways of men,

and looking into secret places.

20 All things were known to him before they were created,

and also after they were completed.

21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city.

He’ll be seized where he least expects it.

22 So also is a wife who leaves her husband,

and produces an heir by another man.

23 Because first, she was disobedient in the Most High’s law.

Second, she trespassed against her own husband.

Third, she played the adulteress in fornication,

and had children by another man.

24 She’ll be brought out into the congregation.

Her punishment will extend to her children.

25 Her children won’t take root.

Her branches will bear no fruit.

26 She’ll leave her memory for a curse.

Her reproach won’t be blotted out.

27 And those who are left behind will know that there’s nothing better than the fear of the master,

and nothing sweeter than to heed the master’s commandments. 28 [fn]