Proverbs 6:20–26

Proverbs 6:20–26 (Listen)

Warnings Against Adultery

20   My son, keep your father’s commandment,
    and forsake not your mother’s teaching.
21   Bind them on your heart always;
    tie them around your neck.
22   When you walk, theyHebrew it; three times in this verse">1 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 evil woman,Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor">2
    from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.Hebrew the foreign woman">3
25   Do not desire her beauty in your heart,
    and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26   for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread,Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread">4
    but a married womanHebrew a man’s wife">5 hunts down a precious life.

Footnotes

[2] 6:24 Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor

[3] 6:24 Hebrew the foreign woman

[4] 6:26 Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread

[5] 6:26 Hebrew a man’s wife