More warnings about adultery

20 My son, obey my commands,

and do not ignore what your mother has taught you.

21 Remember the things that we have said.

Those things should be like a beautiful necklace around your neck.

22 If you follow our advice, it will be as though what we have taught you [PRS] will lead you, wherever you go.

When you sleep, they will protect you.

And when you wake up in the morning, they will teach/instruct you.

23 These commands and what we teach you will be like a lamp to light your path [MET].

When we rebuke you and correct/punish you,

we will be showing you the road to having a good life.

24 Heeding [PRS] these commands and things that we have taught you will enable you to keep away from immoral women

and from listening to the enticing words of an adulterous woman.

25 Even if such a woman is beautiful and has lovely eyes, do not desire to go with her.

Do not let her persuade you to go with her ◄with her eyes/by the way she looks at you►.

26 Do not forget that you can hire a prostitute for only a loaf of bread,

but if you sleep with another man’s wife, ◄it may cost you/you may lose► your life.

27 Can you carry hot coals in your pocket and not be burned [RHQ]?

28 Can you walk on burning coals and not scorch/burn your feet?

29 No! And in the same way, anyone who ◄sleeps with/has sex with► another man’s wife will suffer for doing that.

He will certainly [LIT] be punished severely.

30 We do not despise a thief if he steals some food because he is very hungry.

31 But if he steals something and then is caught by the police,

he will have to pay back ◄seven times as much as/much more than► he stole.

He may need to sell everything that is in his house to get enough money to pay it back.

32 But a man who commits adultery with some woman is very foolish,

because he is destroying his own self/soul by what he is doing.

33 That woman’s husband will wound him badly,

and other people will despise him.

His shame will never end.

34 Because that woman’s husband will ◄be jealous/not want anyone else to sleep with her►, he will become furious,

and when he gets revenge, he will not act mercifully toward the man who slept with his wife.

35 And he will not accept any bribe/money, even if it is a big bribe, to ◄appease him/cause him to stop being angry►.