Proverbs 6:27

Warning Against Relations with a Married Woman

27 Can a man carry fire in his lap, and his clothes not burn?

Proverbs 6:27 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 6:27

Can a man take fire in his bosom
A whore is compared to fire, and is so called by the poets ^F15; and it is a saying of Pythagoras,

``it is a like thing to fall into fire and into a woman ^F16;''

the Hebrew words (va) , "esh", "fire", and (hvya) , "ishah", "a woman", have some affinity in sound; and the phrase of taking it "into the bosom" fitly expresses the impure embraces of a harlot; and his clothes not be burned?
he cannot, it is impossible; and equally vain is it to think that a man can commit whoredom and it not be known, or he not hurt by it in his name and substance, or in his body, soul, and life.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F15 Plauti Bacehides, Act. 4. Sc. 9. v. 15. "Accede ad ignem hunc", Terent. Eunuehus, Act. 1. Sc. 2. v. 5.
F16 (to eiv pur kai eiv gunaika) , apud Maximum, Eclog. c. 39.

Proverbs 6:27 In-Context

25 Do not desire her beauty in your heart; may she not capture you with her eyelashes.

26 For [the] price of a woman, a prostitute, [is the] price of a loaf of bread, but the {woman belonging to a man} hunts precious life.

27 Can a man carry fire in his lap, and his clothes not burn?

28 If a man walks upon the hot coals, will his feet not be burned?

29 Thus, he who goes to the wife of his neighbor, any who touches her shall not go unpunished.