Amsal 6:28-29

6:28 Can ¹  a man walk on hot coals

without scorching his feet?

6:29 So it is with ²  the one who has sex with ³  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ⁴  who touches ⁵  her will escape ⁶  punishment. ⁷ 

[6:28]  ¹ tn The particle indicates that this is another rhetorical question like that in v. 27.

[6:29]  ² tn Heb “thus is the one.”

[6:29]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

[6:29]  ⁵ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

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

[6:29]  ⁷ 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).