Proverbs 6:32

32 The one who commits adultery with a woman is ¹lacking sense; He who would ²destroy himself does it.

Proverbs 6:32 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 6:32

[But] whoso committeth adultery with a woman
Which is a greater degree of theft than the former, it being the stealing of another man's wife; lacketh understanding;
or "an heart" ^F20; the thief lacks bread, and therefore steals, but this man lacks wisdom, and therefore acts so foolish a part; the one does it to satisfy hunger, the other a brutish lust; he [that] doeth it destroyeth his own soul;
is liable to have his life taken away by the husband of the adulteress; so according to Solon's law ^F21 the adulterer taken in the act might be killed by the husband: or by the civil magistrate; for according to the law of. Moses he was to die, either to be strangled or stoned, (See Gill on John 8:5); and besides, he not only ruins the natural faculties of his soul, besotting, corrupting, and depraving that, giving his heart to a whore, but brings eternal destruction on it; yet so foolish is he, though it issues in the ruin of his precious soul; "he does this" ^F23, for so the first part of this clause, which stands last in the original text, may be rendered.

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FOOTNOTES:

F20 (bl rox) "deficit corde", Pagninus, Montanus; "caret corde", Mercerus, Gejerus; so Michaelis.
F21 Plutarch. in Vita Solon. p. 90.
F23 (hnvey awh) "ipse faeiet illud", Montanus; "ipse faciet hoc", so some in Vatablus; "is id faciet, sive facit", Cocceius; "ille facit id", Michaelis; "is patrabit illud", Schultens.

Proverbs 6:32 In-Context

30 Men do not despise a thief if he steals To satisfy himself when he is hungry;

31 But when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; He must give all the substance of his house.

32 The one who commits adultery with a woman is lacking sense; He who would destroy himself does it.

33 Wounds and disgrace he will find, And his reproach will not be blotted out.

34 For jealousy enrages a man, And he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

Cross References

• 1. Proverbs 7:7; Proverbs 9:4, 16; Proverbs 10:13, 21; Proverbs 11:12; Proverbs 12:11
• 2. Proverbs 7:22, 23

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "heart"
• [b] Lit "his soul"