¹Lord, Father, and master of my life,

don’t abandon me to their will,

and don’t let me fall because of them.

²Who will station whips

to keep my thoughts in line

and set the discipline of wisdom

over my heart,

so that I might not be spared my faults

due to ignorance

and my sins not go unnoticed?

³Otherwise, my acts of ignorance

might multiply,

and my sins might increase,

and I’ll fall before my adversaries,

and my enemy will rejoice over me.

⁴Lord, Father, God of my life,

don’t let me have prideful eyes;

⁵turn desire away from me.

⁶Don’t allow gluttony or sexual desire

to overtake me,

and don’t hand me over

to a shameless spirit.

Instruction about the mouth

⁷Listen, my children, to instruction

about your mouth;

whoever follows my instruction

will never succumb to it.

⁸The lips of sinners will seize them

and make abusers

and the arrogant stumble.

⁹Don’t let your mouth

get used to making solemn pledges,

and don’t get accustomed

to saying the name of the holy one.

¹⁰Just as a household slave

who is constantly examined

so also the person who always swears

and speaks the Lord’s name

¹¹People who make many solemn pledges

will be full of lawlessness,

If they break their solemn pledges,

their sin is on them,

and if they disregard it, they sin doubly,

and if they swear falsely,

they won’t be justified,

¹²There is a way of speaking

that’s comparable to death;

don’t let it be found

among Jacob’s descendants.

All these things will stay far away

from the godly,

and they will not wallow in their sins.

¹³Don’t grow accustomed

to saying coarse things,

because to do so is to engage

in sinful speech.

¹⁴Remember your father and mother,

This way, you won’t forget yourself

in front of them

then you’d wish

that you hadn’t been born,

¹⁵People who are accustomed

to reproachful words

will never learn anything

their whole life.

On sex

¹⁶Two types of people multiply sins,

A hot temperament that burns like fire

People who are promiscuous

with their kin

¹⁷To promiscuous people all bread is sweet;

they don’t become weary until they die.

¹⁸There are people

who violate their marriage bed,

Darkness envelops me;

the walls hide me;

¹⁹They fear human eyes,

but they are unaware

that the eyes of the Lord

they observe all the ways

of human beings

²⁰Before all things were created,

God knew them;

so as well after they were finished.

²¹These people will be punished

in the streets of the city,

and when they least expect it,

they will be seized.

²²So it is with a woman

when she is unfaithful to her husband

and she presents him with an heir

by another man.

²³First, she’s disobeyed

the Law of the Most High;

second, she’s wronged her husband;

third, she’s committed adultery

by her illicit sexual behavior

²⁴She will be led into the assembly,

and her punishment

will be upon her children.

²⁵Her children won’t take root,

and her branches won’t bear fruit.

²⁶She will leave behind a cursed memory,

and her reproach won’t be wiped clean.

²⁷And those who remain will know

that nothing is better

than fearing the Lord,

and nothing is sweeter than keeping the Lord’s commandments.