Proverbs 6:20-35

New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

²⁰ My child, keep your father’s commandment,
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.^(A)
21 Bind them upon your heart always;
    tie them around your neck.^(B)
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.^(C)
23 For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light,
    and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life,^(D)
24 to preserve you from the wife of another,^[d]
    from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.^[e](E)
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes,^(F)
26 for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^[f]
    but the wife of another stalks a man’s precious life.^(G)
27 Can fire be carried in the bosom
    without burning one’s clothes?
²⁸ Or can one walk on hot coals
    without scorching the feet?
²⁹ So is he who sleeps with his neighbor’s wife;
    no one who touches her will go unpunished.^(H)
30 Thieves are not despised who steal only
    to satisfy their appetite when they are hungry.
³¹ Yet if they are caught, they will pay sevenfold;
    they will forfeit all the goods of their house.^(I)
32 But he who commits adultery has no sense;
    he who does it destroys himself.^(J)
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
    and he will show no restraint when he takes revenge.^(K)
35 He will accept no compensation
    and will refuse a bribe no matter how great.