Proverbs 6:20-35

New International Version

Warning Against Adultery

²⁰My son,^(A) keep your father’s command
    and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.^(B)
²¹Bind them always on your heart;
    fasten them around your neck.^(C)
²²When you walk, they will guide you;
    when you sleep, they will watch over you;
    when you awake, they will speak to you.
²³For this command is a lamp,
    this teaching is a light,^(D)
and correction and instruction
    are the way to life,^(E)
²⁴keeping you from your neighbor’s wife,
    from the smooth talk of a wayward woman.^(F)

²⁵Do not lust in your heart after her beauty
or let her captivate you with her eyes.

²⁶For a prostitute can be had for a loaf of bread,
    but another man’s wife preys on your very life.^(G)
²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap
    without his clothes being burned?
²⁸Can a man walk on hot coals
    without his feet being scorched?
²⁹So is he who sleeps^(H) with another man’s wife;^(I)
    no one who touches her will go unpunished.

³⁰People do not despise a thief if he steals
    to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.
³¹Yet if he is caught, he must pay sevenfold,^(J)
    though it costs him all the wealth of his house.
³²But a man who commits adultery^(K) has no sense;^(L)
    whoever does so destroys himself.
³³Blows and disgrace are his lot,
    and his shame will never^(M) be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy^(N) arouses a husband’s fury,^(O)
and he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
³⁵He will not accept any compensation;
he will refuse a bribe, however great it is.^(P)