A Prayer for Disciplined Desires

1 Lord, Father and Master of my life, don’t abandon me to their advice. Don’t let me fall because of them. 2 Who will set whips over my thought, and wise discipline over my heart, so that they do not spare me when I err or overlook their sins? 3 Otherwise my errors might multiply, and my sins increase, I might fall before my adversaries, and my enemy might gloat over me. 4 Lord, Father and God of my life, don’t give me arrogant eyes,⁠a 5 and turn away evil desire from me. 6 Let neither gluttony nor lust overtake me. Don’t give me over to a shameless mind.⁠b

Speech and Oaths

7 Listen, my children, to the discipline of the mouth. He who keeps it will not be caught.⁠c 8 The sinner will be overpowered through his lips. By them, the insulter and the arrogant will stumble. 9 Don’t make a habit of swearing oaths, and don’t make a habit of naming the Holy One,⁠d 10 for as a servant who is continually whipped will not lack bruises, so he also who swears and continually speaks the Name will not be cleansed from sin. 11 A man of many oaths will be filled with wrongdoing. The whip will not depart from his house. If he offends, his sin will be on him. If he disregards it, he has sinned doubly. If he has sworn falsely, he will not be justified, for his house will be filled with disasters.

12 There is a way of speaking that is clothed with death. Let it not be found in the inheritance of Jacob, for all these things will be far from the godly, and they will not wallow in sins. 13 Don’t make a habit of speaking with gross rudeness, for it involves sinful speech. 14 Remember your father and your mother, for you sit among important men, so that you do not forget yourself before them, and become a fool by your bad habit, so you may wish that you had not been born, and curse the day of your birth. 15 A man who is accustomed to abusive language won’t be corrected all the days of his life.

Uncontrolled Desires and Infidelity

16 Two kinds of people multiply sins, and the third will bring anger. A hot passion, like a burning fire, will not be put out until it is consumed. Someone who practices sexual immorality in his own flesh will never stop until he has burned out the fire. 17 All bread is sweet to someone who practices sexual immorality. He will not stop until he dies.

18 A man who goes astray from his own marriage bed says in his heart, “Who sees me? Darkness is around me, and the walls hide me. No one sees me. Who am I afraid of? The Most High will not remember my sins.”⁠e 19 The eyes of men are his terror. He doesn’t know that the eyes of the Lord are ten thousand times brighter than the sun,⁠f seeing all the ways of men, and looking into secret places.⁠g 20 All things were known to him before they were created, and also after they were completed. 21 This man will be punished in the streets of the city. He will be seized where he least expects it.⁠h

22 So it is also with a wife who leaves her husband, and produces an heir by another man. 23 For first, she was disobedient to the law of the Most High. Second, she wronged her own husband. Third, she committed adultery through sexual immorality, and had children by another man. 24 She will be brought out into the congregation. Her punishment will extend to her children. 25 Her children will not take root. Her branches will bear no fruit.⁠i 26 She will leave a memory of herself as a curse. Her disgrace won’t be blotted out. 27 And those who are left behind will know that there is nothing better than the fear of the Lord, and nothing sweeter than to obey the commandments of the Lord.