Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?
Parallel translations
- KJV Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?
- BSB Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?
- NKJV Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?
- NASB Can anyone take fire in his lap And his clothes not be burned?
- NLT Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?
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
You cannot hold fire to your chest without being burned. Adultery inevitably brings harm, with no exceptions.
Overview
Through a rhetorical image, the father insists that contact with sexual sin cannot leave a person unscathed. The picture of carrying fire makes the consequence feel as certain as a law of nature. It prepares the way for the explicit application to the man who pursues another's wife.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 3
- Job 31:9–12“If my heart has been enticed to a woman, and I have laid wait at my neighbor’s door,
- Jas 3:5So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest!
- Hos 7:4–7They are all adulterers. They are burning like an oven that the baker stops stirring, from the kneading of the dough, until it is leavened.
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 6:27 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
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