20. Observe, my son, your father’s command,and do not reject your mother’s teaching;
21. Keep them fastened over your heart always,tie them around your neck.
22. When you lie down they will watch over you,when you wake, they will share your concerns;wherever you turn, they will guide you.
23. For the command is a lamp, and the teaching a light,and a way to life are the reproofs that discipline,
24. Keeping you from another’s wife,from the smooth tongue of the foreign woman.
25. Do not lust in your heart after her beauty,do not let her captivate you with her glance!
26. For the price of a harlotmay be scarcely a loaf of bread,But a married womanis a trap for your precious life.
27. Can a man take embers into his bosom,and his garments not be burned?
28. Or can a man walk on live coals,and his feet not be scorched?
29. So with him who sleeps with another’s wife—none who touches her shall go unpunished.
30. Thieves are not despisedif out of hunger they steal to satisfy their appetite.
31. Yet if caught they must pay back sevenfold,yield up all the wealth of their house.