Proverbs 6:26

26 for 1the price of a prostitute is only 2a loaf of bread,[a] but a married woman[b]3hunts down a precious life.

Proverbs 6:26 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 6:26

For by means of a whorish woman [a man is brought] to a piece
of bread
To be glad of one, and to beg for one, for the least morsel; it is expressive of the extreme poverty and want which harlots bring men to, who strip them of all their substance, and then send them going to get their bread as they can; thus the prodigal, having spent his substance with harlots, was so reduced as to desire the husks which swine ate, ( Luke 15:13-16 ) ; so spiritual fornication or idolatry leaves men without bread for their souls, brings them into spiritual poverty, and even to desperation and death; and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life;
or "soul" F14; not content with his precious substance, his jewels, his gold and silver; having stripped him of his goods and livelihood, though some think that is here intended; she lays snares for him, and draws him into those evils which bring him into the hands of her husband, who avenges himself by slaying the adulterer; or into the hands of the civil magistrate, by whom this sin of adultery was punished with death; nay, is the occasion of the ruin of his precious and immortal soul to all eternity: the precious souls of men are part of the wares of antichrist, ( Revelation 18:13 ) .


FOOTNOTES:

F14 (vpn) "animam", Pagninus, Montanus

Proverbs 6:26 In-Context

24 to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress.
25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes;
26 for the price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married womanhunts down a precious life.
27 Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

Cross References 3

  • 1. [Proverbs 29:3]
  • 2. Proverbs 28:21; 1 Samuel 2:36
  • 3. Ezekiel 13:18

Footnotes 2

  • [a]. Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread
  • [b]. Hebrew a man's wife
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.