23 For a command is a lamp, teaching is a light,(A)
and corrective discipline is the way to life.(B)
24 They will protect you from an evil woman,[a]
from the flattering tongue of a wayward woman.(C)
25 Don’t lust in your heart for her beauty(D)
or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.(E)
26 For a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,[b]
but the wife of another man[c] goes after a precious life.(F)
27 Can a man embrace fire
and his clothes not be burned?
28 Can a man walk on burning coals
without scorching his feet?
29 So it is with the one who sleeps with
another man’s wife;
no one who touches her will go unpunished.(G)
30 People don’t despise the thief if he steals
to satisfy himself when he is hungry.(H)
31 Still, if caught, he must pay seven times as much;(I)
he must give up all the wealth in his house.
32 The one who commits adultery[d] lacks sense;
whoever does so destroys himself.(J)
33 He will get a beating[e] and dishonor,
and his disgrace will never be removed.
34 For jealousy enrages a husband,(K)
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
35 He will not be appeased by anything
or be persuaded by lavish bribes.

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Footnotes

  1. 6:24 LXX reads from a married woman
  2. 6:26 Or On account of a prostitute, one is left with only a loaf of bread
  3. 6:26 Lit but a wife of a man
  4. 6:32 Lit commits adultery with a woman
  5. 6:33 Or plague

23 For like a lamp is a commandment, and instruction is light,
    and the way of life[a] is the reproof of discipline,
24 in order to preserve you from an evil woman,[b]
    from the smoothness of the tongue of an adulteress.[c]
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart;
    may she not capture you with her eyelashes.
26 For the price of a woman, a prostitute,[d] is the price of a loaf of bread,
    but the woman belonging to a man[e] hunts precious life.

Warning Against Relations with a Married Woman

27 Can a man carry fire in his lap,
    and his clothes not burn?
28 If a man walks upon the hot coals,
    will his feet not be burned?
29 Thus, he who goes to the wife of his neighbor,
    any who touches her shall not go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief when he steals
    to fill himself[f] when he is hungry.
31 But if he is found, he will pay sevenfold,
    every possession of his house he shall give.
32 He who commits adultery with a woman lacks sense,[g]
    he destroys himself[h] who does it.
33 A wound and dishonor he will find,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped out.
34 For jealousy is the fury of a husband,
    and he will not show restraint on the day of revenge.
35 He will not accept any compensation,[i]
    and he will not be willing, though the bribe is large.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:23 Hebrew “lives”
  2. Proverbs 6:24 Or “wife”
  3. Proverbs 6:24 Literally “a foreign woman”
  4. Proverbs 6:26 Or “whore”
  5. Proverbs 6:26 Literally “the woman of a man”
  6. Proverbs 6:30 Or “soul,” or “inner self”
  7. Proverbs 6:32 Literally “heart”
  8. Proverbs 6:32 Or “his soul,” or “his life”
  9. Proverbs 6:35 Literally “the face of any compensation”