Proverbs 6:27-29

6:27 Can a man hold ¹  fire ²  against his chest ³ 

without ⁴  burning his clothes?

6:28 Can ⁵  a man walk on hot coals

without scorching his feet?

6:29 So it is with ⁶  the one who has sex with ⁷  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ⁸  who touches ⁹  her will escape ¹⁰  punishment. ¹¹ 

¹ tn The Qal imperfect (with the interrogative) here has a potential nuance – “Is it possible to do this?” The sentence is obviously a rhetorical question making an affirmation that it is not possible.

² sn “Fire” provides the analogy for the sage’s warning: Fire represents the sinful woman (hypocatastasis) drawn close, and the burning of the clothes the inevitable consequences of the liaison. See J. L. Crenshaw, “Impossible Questions, Sayings, and Tasks,” Semeia 17 (1980): 19-34. The word “fire” (אֵשׁ, ’esh) plays on the words “man” (אִישׁ,’ish) and “woman” (אִשָּׁה, ’ishah); a passage like this probably inspired R. Gamaliel’s little explanation that what binds a man and a woman together in a holy marriage is י (yod) and ה (he), the two main letters of the holy name Yah. But if the Lord is removed from the relationship, that is, if these two letters are removed, all that is left is the אֵשׁ – the fire of passion. Since Gamaliel was the teacher of Paul, this may have influenced Paul’s advice that it was better to marry than to burn (1 Cor 7:9).

³ tn Heb “snatch up fire into his bosom.”

⁴ tn The second colon begins with the vav (ו) disjunctive on the noun, indicating a disjunctive clause; here it is a circumstantial clause.

⁵ tn The particle indicates that this is another rhetorical question like that in v. 27.

⁶ tn Heb “thus is the one.”

⁷ tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”

⁸ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

⁹ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

¹⁰ tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”

¹¹ tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).