Proverbs 6:20-35

Warning against Adultery

²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching. ²¹ Bind them continually on your heart.
Tie them around your neck. ²² When you walk, it will lead you.
When you sleep, it will watch over you.
When you awake, it will talk with you. ²³ For the commandment is a lamp,
and the law is light.
Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, ²⁴ to keep you from the immoral woman,
from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue. ²⁵ Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart,
neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. ²⁶ For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread.
The adulteress hunts for your precious life. ²⁷ Can a man scoop fire into his lap,
and his clothes not be burned? ²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals,
and his feet not be scorched? ²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife.
Whoever touches her will not be unpunished. ³⁰ Men don’t despise a thief,
if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry: ³¹ but if he is found, he shall restore seven times.
He shall give all the wealth of his house. ³² He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding.
He who does it destroys his own soul. ³³ He will get wounds and dishonor.
His reproach will not be wiped away. ³⁴ For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband.
He won’t spare in the day of vengeance. ³⁵ He won’t regard any ransom,
neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.