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²⁰ My child, keep your father’s commandment,
   and do not forsake your mother’s teaching.
²¹ Bind them upon your heart always;
   tie them around your neck.
²² When you walk, they^* will lead you;
   when you lie down, they^* will watch over you;
   and when you awake, they^* 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 wife of another,^*
   from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
²⁵ Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
   and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
²⁶ for a prostitute’s fee is only a loaf of bread,^*
   but the wife of another stalks a man’s very life.
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 neighbour’s wife;
   no one who touches her will go unpunished.
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.
³² But he who commits adultery has no sense;
   he who does it destroys himself.
³³ He will get wounds and dishonour,
   and his disgrace will not be wiped away.
³⁴ For jealousy arouses a husband’s fury,
   and he shows no restraint when he takes revenge.
³⁵ He will accept no compensation,
   and refuses a bribe no matter how great.