For by means of a harlot A man is reduced to a crust of bread; And an adulteress will prey upon his precious life.
Parallel translations
- WEB For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.
- KJV 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.
- BSB For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very 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 when this, your son, came, who has devoured your living with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him.’
- Prov 29:3Whoever loves wisdom brings joy to his father; but a companion of prostitutes squanders his wealth.
- 1 Sam 2:36It will happen, that everyone who is left in your house will come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and will say, “Please put me into one of the priests’ offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread.”’”
- Gen 39:14she called to the men of her house, and spoke to them, saying, “Behold, he has brought in a Hebrew to us to mock us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.
- Ezek 13:18and say, “Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Woe to the women who sew pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?
- Luke 15:13–15Not many days after, the younger son gathered all of this together and traveled into a far country. There he wasted his property with riotous living.
- Prov 5:10lest strangers feast on your wealth, and your labors enrich another man’s house.
- Ezek 13:8“‘Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Because you have spoken falsehood and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you,” says the Lord Yahweh.
- Prov 29:8Mockers stir up a city, but wise men turn away anger.
- Prov 7:23Until an arrow strikes through his liver, as a bird hurries to the snare, and doesn’t know that it will cost 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.