Exodus 20:14

20:14 “You shall not commit adultery. ¹ 

Leviticus 20:10

20:10 If a man ²  commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife, ³  both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.

Deuteronomy 5:18

5:18 You must not commit adultery.

Deuteronomy 22:22-24

22:22 If a man is caught having sexual relations with ⁴  a married woman ⁵  both the man who had relations with the woman and the woman herself must die; in this way you will purge ⁶  evil from Israel.

22:23 If a virgin is engaged to a man and another man meets ⁷  her in the city and has sexual relations with ⁸  her, 22:24 you must bring the two of them to the gate of that city and stone them to death, the young woman because she did not cry out though in the city and the man because he violated ⁹  his neighbor’s fiancée; ¹⁰  in this way you will purge ¹¹  evil from among you.

Proverbs 6:32

6:32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, ¹² 

whoever does it destroys his own life. ¹³ 

¹ sn This is a sin against the marriage of a fellow citizen – it destroys the home. The Law distinguished between adultery (which had a death penalty) and sexual contact with a young woman (which carried a monetary fine and usually marriage if the father was willing). So it distinguished fornication and adultery. Both were sins, but the significance of each was different. In the ancient world this sin is often referred to as “the great sin.”

² tn Heb “And a man who.” The syntax here and at the beginning of the following verses elliptically mirrors that of v. 9, which justifies the rendering as a conditional clause.

³ tc The reading of the LXX minuscule mss has been followed here (see the BHS footnote a-a). The MT has a dittography, repeating “a man who commits adultery with the wife of” (see the explanation in J. E. Hartley, Leviticus [WBC], 328). The duplication found in the MT is reflected in some English versions, e.g., KJV, ASV, NASB, NIV.

⁴ tn Heb “lying with” (so KJV, NASB), a Hebrew idiom for sexual relations.

⁵ tn Heb “a woman married to a husband.”

⁶ tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.

⁷ tn Heb “finds.”

⁸ tn Heb “lies with.”

⁹ tn Heb “humbled.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “wife.”

¹¹ tn Heb “burn.” See note on the phrase “purge out” in Deut 21:21.

¹² tn Heb “heart.” The term “heart” is used as a metonymy of association for discernment, wisdom, good sense. Cf. NAB “is a fool”; NIV “lacks judgment”; NCV, NRSV “has no sense.”

¹³ tn Heb “soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a metonymy of association for “life” (BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).