Proverbs 6:20-35

Warnings Against Adultery

20 ¹My son, keep your father's commandment, ²and forsake not your mother's teaching.

21 ³Bind them on your heart always; ⁴tie them around your neck.

22 ⁵When you walk, they^[a] will lead you; ⁶when you lie down, they will ⁷watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you.

23 For the commandment is ⁸a lamp and the teaching a light, and the ⁹reproofs of discipline are the way of life,

24 to preserve you from the evil woman,^[b] from the smooth tongue of ¹⁰the adulteress.^[c]

25 ¹¹Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her ¹²eyelashes;

26 for ¹³the price of a prostitute is only ¹⁴a loaf of bread,^[d] but a married woman^[e]15hunts down a precious life.

27 Can a man carry ¹⁶fire next to his ¹⁷chest and his clothes not be burned?

28 Or can one ¹⁸walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched?

29 So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her ¹⁹will go unpunished.

30 People do not despise a thief if he steals to ²⁰satisfy his appetite when he is hungry,

31 but ²¹if he is caught, he will pay ²²sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house.

32 He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself.

33 He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away.

34 For ²³jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when ²⁴he takes revenge.

35 He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts.

Proverbs 6:20-35 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO PROVERBS 6

In this chapter the wise man dissuades from rash suretyship; exposes the sin of idleness; describes a wicked man; makes mention of seven things hateful to God; exhorts to attend to parental instructions and precepts, and cautions against adultery. Suretyship is described, Pr 6:1; and represented as a snare and a net, in which men are taken, Pr 6:2; and advice is given what to do in such a case, for safety in it, and deliverance from it, Pr 6:3-5; The sin of slothfulness is exposed, by observing the industry of the ant, Pr 6:6-8; by expostulating with the sluggard for his continuance in sloth, and by mimicking him, Pr 6:9,10; and by the poverty it brings upon him, Pr 6:11. Then a naughty wicked man is described, by his mouth, eyes, feet, fingers, and heart, whose ruin is sudden and inevitable, Pr 6:11-15. The seven things hateful to God are particularly named, Pr 6:16-19. And next the exhortation in some preceding chapters is reassumed, to attend to the instructions of parents; which will be found ornamental, pleasant, and useful, Pr 6:20-23. Especially to preserve from the lewd woman cautioned against, Pr 6:24,25; whose company is dissuaded from; on account of the extreme poverty and distress she brings persons to, and even danger of life, Pr 6:26; from the unavoidable ruin such come into, Pr 6:27-29; from the sin of uncleanness being greater than that of theft, Pr 6:30,31; from the folly the adulterer betrays; from the destruction of his soul, and the disgrace he brings on himself, Pr 6:32,33; and from the rage and irreconcilable offence of the husband of the adulteress, Pr 6:34,35.

Cross References

• 1. See Proverbs 1:8
• 2. See Proverbs 1:8
• 3. See Proverbs 3:3
• 4. [Job 31:36]
• 5. See Proverbs 3:23, 24
• 6. See Proverbs 3:23, 24
• 7. Proverbs 2:11
• 8. Psalms 119:105; [Psalms 13:3]
• 9. [Proverbs 10:17]
• 10. See Proverbs 2:16
• 11. [Matthew 5:28]
• 12. [2 Kings 9:30]
• 13. [Proverbs 29:3]
• 14. Proverbs 28:21; 1 Samuel 2:36
• 15. Ezekiel 13:18
• 16. Job 31:12
• 17. Psalms 79:12
• 18. Isaiah 43:2
• 19. Proverbs 16:5
• 20. Job 38:39
• 21. [Exodus 22:4]
• 22. See Psalms 79:12
• 23. Proverbs 27:4; Song of Songs 8:6
• 24. [Leviticus 20:10]

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew it; three times in this verse
• [b]. Revocalization (compare Septuagint) yields from the wife of a neighbor
• [c]. Hebrew the foreign woman
• [d]. Or (compare Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate) for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread
• [e]. Hebrew a man's wife