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Warning Against Adultery[a]

20 Observe, my son, your father’s command,
    and do not reject your mother’s teaching;

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Footnotes

  1. 6:20–35

    The second of three instructions on adultery (5:1–23; 6:20–35; and chap. 7). The instructions assume that wisdom will protect one from adultery and its consequences: loss of property and danger to one’s person. In this poem, the father and the mother urge their son to keep their teaching constantly before his eyes. The teaching will light his way and make it a path to life (v. 23). The teaching will preserve him from the adulterous woman who is far more dangerous than a prostitute. Prostitutes may cost one money, but having an affair with someone else’s wife puts one in grave danger. The poem bluntly urges self-interest as a motive to refrain from adultery.

    The poem has three parts. I (vv. 20–24, ten lines), in which v. 23 repeats “command” and “teaching” of v. 20 and “keeping” in v. 24 completes the fixed pair initiated by “observe” in v. 20; II (vv. 25–29, ten lines) is a self-contained argument comparing the costs of a liaison with a prostitute and a married woman; III (vv. 30–35, twelve lines) draws conclusions from the comparison of adultery with theft: the latter involves property only but adultery destroys one’s name and very self. The best protection against such a woman is heeding parental instruction, which is to be kept vividly before one’s eyes like a written tablet.

Chapter 3

Responsibilities to Parents[a]

Children, listen to me, your father;
    act accordingly, that you may be safe.
For the Lord sets a father in honor over his children
    and confirms a mother’s authority over her sons.
Those who honor their father atone for sins;
    they store up riches who respect their mother.
Those who honor their father will have joy in their own children,
    and when they pray they are heard.
Those who respect their father will live a long life;
    those who obey the Lord honor their mother.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:1–16 Besides the virtues that must characterize our conduct toward God, special duties are enjoined, such as honor and respect toward parents, with corresponding blessings (vv. 1–9). By showing such respect especially to old and infirm parents (vv. 10–13), the sins of children are pardoned (vv. 14–15). Failure to honor father and mother is blasphemy and merits a curse from God (v. 16). Cf. Ex 20:12; Eph 6:2–3.

20 Children, obey your parents in everything, for this is pleasing to the Lord.(A)

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