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.