For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life.
Parallel translations
- WEB For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
- BSB For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life.
- NKJV For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.
- NASB For the price of a prostitute reduces one to a loaf of bread, And an adulteress hunts for a precious life.
- NLT For a prostitute will bring you to poverty, but sleeping with another man’s wife will cost you your life.
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
Immorality is costly: it can reduce a man to poverty and hunt down his very life. Sexual sin exacts a devastating price.
Overview
The verse contrasts the impoverishing cost of involvement with a prostitute and the deadly pursuit of the adulteress. While some details of the comparison are debated, the clear point is the ruinous toll of sexual sin on a person's resources and life itself. It sets up the warnings of certain judgment that follow.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Luke 15:30But as soon as this thy son was come, which hath devoured thy living with harlots, thou hast killed for him the fatted calf.
- Prov 29:3Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance.
- 1 Sam 2:36And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left in thine house shall come and crouch to him for a piece of silver and a morsel of bread, and shall say, Put me, I pray thee, into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.
- Gen 39:14That she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us; he came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice:
- Ezek 13:18And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes, and make kerchiefs upon the head of every stature to hunt souls! Will ye hunt the souls of my people, and will ye save the souls alive that come unto you?
- Luke 15:13–15And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
- Prov 5:10Lest strangers be filled with thy wealth; and thy labours be in the house of a stranger;
- Ezek 13:8Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Because ye have spoken vanity, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, saith the Lord GOD.
- Prov 29:8Scornful men bring a city into a snare: but wise men turn away wrath.
- Prov 7:23Till a dart strike through his liver; as a bird hasteth to the snare, and knoweth not that it is for his life.
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 6:26 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.