Warnings Against Adultery

20 (A)My son, keep your father's commandment,
    (B)and forsake not your mother's teaching.
21 (C)Bind them on your heart always;
    (D)tie them around your neck.
22 (E)When you walk, they[a] will lead you;
    (F)when you lie down, they will (G)watch over you;
    and when you awake, they will talk with you.
23 For the commandment is (H)a lamp and the teaching a light,
    and the (I)reproofs of discipline are the way of life,
24 to preserve you from the evil woman,[b]
    from the smooth tongue of (J)the adulteress.[c]
25 (K)Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her (L)eyelashes;
26 for (M)the price of a prostitute is only (N)a loaf of bread,[d]
    but a married woman[e] (O)hunts down a precious life.
27 Can a man carry (P)fire next to his (Q)chest
    and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one (R)walk on hot coals
    and his feet not be scorched?
29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife;
    none who touches her (S)will go unpunished.
30 People do not despise a thief if he steals
    to (T)satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,
31 but (U)if he is caught, he will pay (V)sevenfold;
    he will give all the goods of his house.
32 He who commits adultery lacks sense;
    he who does it destroys himself.
33 He will get wounds and dishonor,
    and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
34 For (W)jealousy makes a man furious,
    and he will not spare when (X)he takes revenge.
35 He will accept no compensation;
    he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 6:22 Hebrew it; three times in this verse
  2. Proverbs 6:24 Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor
  3. Proverbs 6:24 Hebrew the foreign woman
  4. Proverbs 6:26 Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread
  5. Proverbs 6:26 Hebrew a man's wife

Lust

27 (A)“You have heard that it was said, (B)‘You shall not commit adultery.’ 28 But I say to you that (C)everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 (D)If your right eye (E)causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into (F)hell. 30 (G)And if your right hand (H)causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into (I)hell.

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