16 Two kinds of individuals multiply sins, and a third incurs wrath. Hot passion that blazes like a fire will not be quenched until it burns itself out; one who commits fornication with his near of kin will never cease until the fire burns him up. 17 To a fornicator all bread is sweet; he will never weary until he dies. 18 The one who sins against his marriage bed says to himself, "Who can see me? Darkness surrounds me, the walls hide me, and no one sees me. Why should I worry? The Most High will not remember sins." 19 His fear is confined to human eyes and he does not realize that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun; they look upon every aspect of human behavior and see into hidden corners 20 Before the universe was created, it was known to him, and so it is since its completion.

For many think such things to be pleasures only which are against nature, such as these sins of theirs. And those who are better than they, know them to be sins, but are overcome by pleasures, and darkness is the veil of their vicious practices. For he violates his marriage adulterously who uses it in a meretricious way, and hears not the voice of the Instructor, crying, The man who ascends his bed, who says in his soul, Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls are my covering, and no one sees my sins. Why do I fear lest the Highest will remember? Most wretched is such a man, dreading men's eyes alone, and thinking that he will escape the observation of God. For he knows not, says the Scripture, that brighter ten thousand times than the sun are the eyes of the Most High, which look on all the ways of men, and cast their glance into hidden parts. Thus again the Instructor threatens them, speaking by Isaiah: Woe be to those who take counsel in secret, and say, Who sees us? For one may escape the light of sense, but that of the mind it is impossible to escape.