20
My son,1 keep your father's commands and do not forsake your mother's teaching.221
Bind them upon your heart forever; fasten them around your neck.322
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 these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light,4 and the corrections of discipline are the way to life,524
keeping you from the immoral woman, from the smooth tongue of the wayward wife.625
Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes,
26
for the prostitute reduces you to a loaf of bread, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.727
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 sleeps8 with another man's wife;9 no one who touches her will go unpunished.
30
Men 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,10 though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
32
But a man who commits adultery11 lacks judgment;12 whoever does so destroys himself.
33
Blows and disgrace are his lot, and his shame will never13 be wiped away;
34
for jealousy14 arouses a husband's fury,15 and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35
He will not accept any compensation; he will refuse the bribe, however great it is.16
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