What does it mean to keep your father’s commandment and not forsake your mother’s law?

Here the father and mother are pictured as godly parents passing on God’s ways. To keep the father’s commandment and not forsake the mother’s law means to treat their teaching as something precious, not optional advice. Binding it on your heart and tying it around your neck paints a picture of keeping God’s word close inside and outside, shaping your thoughts and your daily choices. It is not about empty tradition, but about taking in God’s commands so deeply that they lead you wherever you go.

How are God’s commandments a lamp and the law a light in this passage?

The passage says the commandment is a lamp and the law is light to show that God’s word helps you see where you are going in life. Like a lamp in a dark room, his commands expose danger and show a safe path. The “reproofs of instruction” are painful corrections that keep a person on the way of life. Instead of leaving us to guess what is right, God’s word shines on our path, warns us about sin, and protects us from choices that would harm our body, reputation, and soul.

Who is the “evil woman” or “strange woman,” and what is the warning about her?

The “evil woman” or “strange woman” is a woman who tempts a man into sexual sin, especially adultery. She uses flattering words and seductive looks to stir up lust. The warning is not only about her actions, but about the man’s heart. He is told not to desire her beauty in his heart and not to be captured by her eyes. The passage shows how such temptation can seem pleasant at first, but leads to poverty, shame, broken homes, danger from the wronged husband, and judgment from God.

What do the questions about fire in the bosom and walking on hot coals mean?

The questions about holding fire in your chest or walking on hot coals are pictures meant to show that adultery always brings harm. Just as you cannot hug a burning coal and stay unburned, you cannot go in to your neighbour’s wife and escape guilt and damage. The point is that sexual sin is not a game you can control. Once you step into it, painful results follow: hurt to your body, your marriage, your name, and your soul. It is wiser never to play with that “fire” at all.

Why does this passage compare adultery with stealing when hungry?

The passage compares adultery with theft to show how serious adultery is. People may feel some pity for a thief who steals because he is hungry. Even then, the thief must repay what he took, sometimes many times over. But with adultery, there is no simple repayment. It attacks a marriage, breaks trust, and cannot be undone by money or gifts. The man who commits adultery is said to lack understanding and to destroy his own soul. He gains wounds, dishonour, lasting shame, and possible violence from the offended husband.

What does it mean that adultery destroys a person’s own soul?

When the passage says the adulterer destroys his own soul, it is saying he harms his deepest life, not just his body or possessions. Adultery brings inner damage: a hardened conscience, distance from God, and a stain on his name that is hard to erase. It may lead to physical harm, broken families, and even death, but beyond that it sets a person against God’s clear command. Instead of gaining pleasure, he is tearing down his own life from the inside, trading short-term desire for long-term loss.

Why is the jealous husband described as not accepting any ransom or gifts?

The jealous husband is shown as full of rage when he finds his wife has been used in adultery. Because his love has been betrayed, he is not satisfied with money, gifts, or apologies. The passage says he will not spare in the day of vengeance and will not regard any ransom. This picture warns that adultery brings real danger from people as well as from God. It reminds the listener that such sin stirs up powerful human anger that may not be calmed once the damage is done.

How can this passage about adultery apply to life today?

This passage still speaks clearly today. It calls you to take God’s word into your heart so it guides your choices, especially in a world filled with sexual temptation. It warns you not to play with lust in your thoughts, in what you watch, or in how you relate to someone who is not your spouse. It reminds you that hidden sin has public results: broken trust, shame, anger, and spiritual harm. Letting God’s commands act as your lamp helps you choose faithfulness and avoid regret.

Prov.6.20

Proverbs 6:20

KJV

¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Warnings against Adultery

¶ My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother:

Bind them continually upon thine heart, and tie them about thy neck.

When thou goest, it shall lead thee; when thou sleepest, it shall keep thee; and when thou awakest, it shall talk with thee.

For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman.

Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.

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.

Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

Can one go upon hot coals, and his feet not be burned?

So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife; whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent.

Men do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy his soul when he is hungry;

But if he be found, he shall restore sevenfold; he shall give all the substance of his house.

But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

For jealousy is the rage of a man: therefore he will not spare in the day of vengeance.

He will not regard any ransom; neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.

Cross References

No cross references available for this verse.