So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
Parallel translations
- WEB So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.
- KJV So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.
- NKJV So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.
- NASB So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not go unpunished.
- NLT So it is with the man who sleeps with another man’s wife. He who embraces her will not go unpunished.
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 man who sleeps with his neighbor's wife will surely be punished. Adultery never escapes consequence.
Overview
The father applies the fire imagery directly: whoever goes in to another man's wife will not go unpunished. The certainty of harm and judgment is the heart of the warning. It upholds the sanctity of marriage, which Scripture treats as a covenant reflecting God's faithfulness.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 12
- 1 Cor 7:1Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good to abstain from sexual relations.
- 2 Sam 12:9–10Why then have you despised the command of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You put Uriah the Hittite to the sword and took his wife as your own, for you have slain him with the sword of the Ammonites.
- Mal 3:5“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.
- Ezek 22:11One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter.
- Lev 20:10If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.
- 2 Sam 11:3–4So David sent and inquired about the woman, and he was told, “This is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
- Prov 16:5Everyone who is proud in heart is detestable to the LORD; be assured that he will not go unpunished.
- Gen 26:10–11“What is this you have done to us?” asked Abimelech. “One of the people could easily have slept with your wife, and you would have brought guilt upon us.”
- Jer 5:8–9They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.
- Gen 12:18–19So Pharaoh summoned Abram and asked, “What have you done to me? Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife?
- 2 Sam 16:21Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.”
- Gen 20:4–7Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he replied, “Lord, would You destroy a nation even though it is innocent?
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 6:29 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.