1Lord, Father and Master of my life, do not abandon me to their counsel; do not let me fall because of them.
2Who will set whips over my thought, and the discipline of wisdom over my heart, so that they do not spare my ignorant faults, and my sins are not overlooked;
3so that my ignorant faults do not multiply, and my sins do not increase, and I fall before my adversaries, and my enemy gloats over me?
4Lord, Father and God of my life, do not give me haughty eyes,
5and turn desire away from me.
6May gluttony and lust not seize me, and do not hand me over to a shameless soul.
7Discipline of the mouth. Hear, children, the discipline of the mouth; he who keeps it will not be caught.
8The sinner is ensnared by his lips; the reviler and the arrogant will stumble in them.
9Do not accustom your mouth to swearing, and do not get used to naming the Holy One.
10For just as a slave who is constantly examined will not lack bruises, so he who always swears and names the Holy One will not be cleansed from sin.
11A man of many oaths will be filled with lawlessness, and the scourge will not depart from his house. If he breaks an oath, his sin is on him; if he disregards it, he sins doubly. If he swore in vain, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with calamities.
12There is a manner of speech clothed in death—may it not be found in the heritage of Jacob. For all these things will be far from the godly, and they will not wallow in sins.
13Do not accustom your mouth to coarse vulgarity, for in it is sinful speech.
14Remember your father and mother when you sit among great men, lest you forget yourself in their presence and be made a fool by your habit, and wish you had not been born and curse the day of your birth.
15A person accustomed to insulting words will never be disciplined all his days.
16Two types of people multiply sins, and a third brings on wrath. A hot soul like a burning fire will not be quenched until it is consumed. A man promiscuous with his own body will not stop until the fire burns itself out.
17To a promiscuous man, any bread is sweet; he will not stop until he dies.
18A man who transgresses against his own marriage bed, saying in his soul, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, the walls hide me, and no one sees me. What should I fear? The Most High will not remember my sins.”
19His fear is only of human eyes, and he does not know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun, observing all the ways of mortals and seeing into hidden places.
20Before all things were created, they were known to him, and so also after they were finished.
21This man will be punished in the city squares, and he will be caught where he least suspects.
22So it is also with a wife who leaves her husband and provides an heir by a stranger.
23For first, she has disobeyed the law of the Most High; second, she has wronged her own husband; and third, she has committed adultery in her promiscuity, bearing children by another man.
24She will be brought out into the assembly, and her children will be examined.
25Her children will not take root, and her branches will bear no fruit.
26She will leave her memory as a curse, and her disgrace will not be wiped away.
27And those who are left will know that nothing is better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to heed the Lord’s commandments.
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