²⁰ My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them upon your heart always;
    tie them about your neck.
²² When you walk, they^[a] will lead you;
    when you lie down, they^[b] will watch over you;
    and when you awake, they^[c] will talk with you.
²³ For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
    and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
²⁴ to preserve you from the evil woman,
    from the smooth tongue of the adventuress.
²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
²⁶ for a harlot may be hired for a loaf of bread,^[d]
    but an adulteress^[e] stalks a man’s very life.
²⁷ Can a man carry fire in his bosom
    and his clothes not be burned?
²⁸ Or can one walk upon hot coals
    and his feet not be scorched?
²⁹ So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife;
    none who touches her will go unpunished.
³⁰ Do not men despise^[f] a thief if he steals
    to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry?
³¹ And if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold;
    he will give all the goods of his house.
³² He who commits adultery has no sense;
    he who does it destroys himself.
³³ Wounds and dishonor will he get,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy makes a man furious,
    and he will not spare when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will accept no compensation,
    nor be appeased though you multiply gifts.