Sirach 9: 1 - 9

Aside from reading through the whole Bible, a few chapters every day, I'll sometimes just randomly flip it open, eyes closed, and the chapter that my finger points to, I read. Just another way to read the Bible, no meaning assigned to whatever might come up. Today it was Sirach 9. I found the first half of it interesting, advice from one man to another, on dealing with women.

1. Be not jealous of the wife of your bosom,
lest you teach her to do evil against you.
2. Give no woman power over you
to trample upon your dignity.
3. Be not intimate with a strange woman,
lest you fall into her snares.
4. With a singing girl be not familiar,
lest you be caught in her wiles.
5. Entertain no thoughts against a virgin,
lest you be enmeshed in damages for her.
6. Give not yourself to harlots,
lest you surrender your inheritance.
7. Gaze not about the lanes of the city
and wander not through its squares;
8. Avert your eyes from a comely woman;
gaze not upon the beauty of another's wife-
Through woman's beauty many perish,
for lust for it burns like fire.
9. With a married woman dine not,
recline not at table to drink by her side,
Lest your heart be drawn to her
and you go down in blood to the grave.

Lesson: Boys, keep your eyes in your head, your hands to yourself, and your walets in your pockets. You're responsible for your own actions!