Genesis 20:9

20:9 Abimelech summoned Abraham and said to him, “What have you done to us? What sin did I commit against you that would cause you to bring such great guilt on me and my kingdom? ¹  You have done things to me that should not be done!” ² 

Genesis 26:10

26:10 Then Abimelech exclaimed, “What in the world have you done to us? ³  One of the men ⁴  might easily have had sexual relations with ⁵  your wife, and you would have brought guilt on us!”

Genesis 39:9

39:9 There is no one greater in this household than I am. He has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. So how could I do ⁶  such a great evil and sin against God?”

Exodus 20:14

20:14 “You shall not commit adultery. ⁷ 

Proverbs 6:29-33

6:29 So it is with ⁸  the one who has sex with ⁹  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ¹⁰  who touches ¹¹  her will escape ¹²  punishment. ¹³ 

6:30 People ¹⁴  do not despise a thief when he steals

to fulfill his need ¹⁵  when he is hungry.

6:31 Yet ¹⁶  if he is caught ¹⁷  he must repay ¹⁸  seven times over,

he might even have to give ¹⁹  all the wealth of his house.

6:32 A man who commits adultery with a woman lacks wisdom, ²⁰ 

whoever does it destroys his own life. ²¹ 

6:33 He will be beaten and despised, ²² 

and his reproach will not be wiped away; ²³ 

[20:9]  ¹ tn Heb “How did I sin against you that you have brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin?” The expression “great sin” refers to adultery. For discussion of the cultural background of the passage, see J. J. Rabinowitz, “The Great Sin in Ancient Egyptian Marriage Contracts,” JNES 18 (1959): 73, and W. L. Moran, “The Scandal of the ‘Great Sin’ at Ugarit,” JNES 18 (1959): 280-81.

[20:9]  ² tn Heb “Deeds which should not be done you have done to me.” The imperfect has an obligatory nuance here.

[26:10]  ³ tn Heb “What is this you have done to us?” The Hebrew demonstrative pronoun “this” adds emphasis: “What in the world have you done to us?” (R. J. Williams, Hebrew Syntax, 24, §118).

[26:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “people.”

[26:10]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew verb means “to lie down.” Here the expression “lie with” or “sleep with” is euphemistic for “have sexual relations with.”

[39:9]  ⁶ tn The nuance of potential imperfect fits this context.

[20:14]  ⁷ 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.”

[6:29]  ⁸ tn Heb “thus is the one.”

[6:29]  ⁹ 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.”

[6:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

[6:29]  ¹¹ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

[6:29]  ¹² tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”

[6:29]  ¹³ 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).

[6:30]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “they do not despise.”

[6:30]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “himself” or “his life.” Since the word נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, traditionally “soul”) refers to the whole person, body and soul, and since it has a basic idea of the bundle of appetites that make up a person, the use here for satisfying his hunger is appropriate.

[6:31]  ¹⁶ tn The term “yet” is supplied in the translation.

[6:31]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “is found out.” The perfect tense with the vav (ו) consecutive is equivalent to the imperfect nuances. Here it introduces either a conditional or a temporal clause before the imperfect.

[6:31]  ¹⁸ tn The imperfect tense has an obligatory nuance. The verb in the Piel means “to repay; to make restitution; to recompense”; cf. NCV, TEV, CEV “must pay back.”

[6:31]  ¹⁹ tn This final clause in the section is somewhat cryptic. The guilty thief must pay back sevenfold what he stole, even if it means he must use the substance of his whole house. The verb functions as an imperfect of possibility: “he might even give.”

[6:32]  ²⁰ 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.”

[6:32]  ²¹ tn Heb “soul.” The noun נֶפֶשׁ (nefesh, “soul”) functions as a metonymy of association for “life” (BDB 659 s.v. 3.c).

[6:33]  ²² tn Heb “He will receive a wound and contempt.”

[6:33]  ²³ sn Even though the text has said that the man caught in adultery ruins his life, it does not mean that he was put to death, although that could have happened. He seems to live on in ignominy, destroyed socially and spiritually. He might receive blows and wounds from the husband and shame and disgrace from the spiritual community. D. Kidner observes that in a morally healthy society the adulterer would be a social outcast (Proverbs [TOTC], 75).