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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 6:27 - 6:27
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The moral necessity of ruinous consequences which the sin of adultery draws after it, is illustrated by examples of natural cause and effect necessarily connected:
27 Can one take fire in his bosom
And his clothes not be burned?
28 Or can any one walk over burning coals
And his feet not be burned?
29 So he that goeth to his neighbour's wife,
No one remains unpunished that toucheth her.
We would say: Can any one, without being, etc.; the former is the Semitic “extended (paratactic)
(Note: The παρατακτικὸς χρόνος denotes the imperfect tense, because it is still extended to the future.)
construction.” The first אִישׁ has the conjunctive Shalsheleth. חָתָה signifies to seize and draw forth a brand or coal with the fire-tongs or shovel (מַחְתָּה, the instrument for this); cf. Arab. khât, according to Lane, “he seized or snatched away a thing;” the form יַחְתֶּה is Kal, as יַחֲנֶה (vid., Köhler, De Tetragammate, 1867, p. 10). חֵיק (properly indentation) is here not the lap, but, as Isa 40:11, the bosom.
Pro 6:28
A second example of destructive consequences naturally following a certain course is introduced with אִם of the double question. גֶּחָלִים (from גֶּחָל, after the form פֶּחָם, but for which גַּחֶלֶת is used) is the regular modification of gaḥḥalı̂m (Gesen. §27, 2). The fem. וְרַגְלָיו is followed here (cf. on the other hand Pro 1:16) by the rhythmically full-sounding form תִכָּוֶינַה (retaining the distinction of gender), from כָּוָה, Arab. kwy, to burn so that a brand-mark (כִּי, Isa 3:24, cauterium) remains.
Pro 6:29
The instruction contained in these examples here follows: τὸ εἰς πῦρ καὶ εἰς γυναῖκα ἐμπεσεῖν Ἴσον ὑπάρχει (Pythagoras in Maximi Eclog. c. 39). בּוֹא אֶל is here, as the second in Psa 51:1, a euphemism, and נָגַע בְּ, to come in contact with, means, as נגע אֶל, to touch, Gen 20:6. He who goes in to his neighbour's wife shall not do so with impunity (נָקִי). Since both expressions denote fleshly nearness and contact, so it is evident he is not guiltless.