Proverbs 6:27

27 Can a man embrace fire^[a] and his clothes not be burned?

Proverbs 6:27 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 6:27

Can a man take fire in his bosom
A whore is compared to fire, and is so called by the poets ^F15; and it is a saying of Pythagoras,

``it is a like thing to fall into fire and into a woman ^F16;''

the Hebrew words (va) , "esh", "fire", and (hvya) , "ishah", "a woman", have some affinity in sound; and the phrase of taking it "into the bosom" fitly expresses the impure embraces of a harlot; and his clothes not be burned?
he cannot, it is impossible; and equally vain is it to think that a man can commit whoredom and it not be known, or he not hurt by it in his name and substance, or in his body, soul, and life.

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FOOTNOTES:

F15 Plauti Bacehides, Act. 4. Sc. 9. v. 15. "Accede ad ignem hunc", Terent. Eunuehus, Act. 1. Sc. 2. v. 5.
F16 (to eiv pur kai eiv gunaika) , apud Maximum, Eclog. c. 39.

Proverbs 6:27 In-Context

25 Don't lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyelashes.

26 For a prostitute's fee is only a loaf of bread, but an adulteress goes after [your] very life.

27 Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

28 Can a man walk on coals without scorching his feet?

29 So it is with the one who sleeps with another man's wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.

Footnotes

• [a] Lit man take fire to his bosom