This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
Parallel translations
- WEB “So is the way of an adulterous woman: she eats and wipes her mouth, and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
- KJV Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
- NKJV This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, And says, “I have done no wickedness.”
- NASB This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth, And says, “I have done no wrong.”
- NLT An adulterous woman consumes a man, then wipes her mouth and says, “What’s wrong with that?”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The adulteress sins and then calmly denies any wrongdoing, treating it as casually as eating a meal.
Overview
Set against the wonder of honorable love, this verse exposes the hardened conscience of the unfaithful woman who feels no guilt. Her casual self-justification reveals how sin can deaden the soul to its own evil. The proverb warns against the deceitfulness of sin and the urgent need for a tender conscience, which the gospel awakens and the Spirit renews.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Prov 7:13–23She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him:
- Prov 5:6She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
- Num 5:11–30Then the LORD said to Moses,
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 30:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.