So is the one who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her will not 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.
- BSB So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.
- NKJV So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife; Whoever touches her shall not be innocent.
- 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 concerning the things about which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman.
- 2 Sam 12:9–10Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
- Mal 3:5I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.
- Ezek 22:11One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife; and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. Another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter.
- Lev 20:10“‘The man who commits adultery with another man’s wife, even he who commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.
- 2 Sam 11:3–4David sent and inquired after the woman. One said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, Uriah the Hittite’s wife?”
- Prov 16:5Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to Yahweh: they shall certainly not be unpunished.
- Gen 26:10–11Abimelech said, “What is this you have done to us? One of the people might easily have lain with your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”
- Jer 5:8–9They were as fed horses roaming at large: everyone neighed after his neighbor’s wife.
- Gen 12:18–19Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this that you have done to me? Why didn’t you tell me that she was your wife?
- 2 Sam 16:21Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Go in to your father’s concubines that he has left to keep the house. Then all Israel will hear that you are abhorred by your father. Then the hands of all who are with you will be strong.”
- Gen 20:4–7Now Abimelech had not come near her. He said, “Lord, will you kill even a righteous nation?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
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.