Adultery

General scriptures concerning

• Genesis 20:3

  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man's wife.

• 2 Samuel 12:14

  Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.

• Job 24:15–18

  The eye also of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight, saying, No eye shall see me: and disguiseth his face. In the dark they dig through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the daytime: they know not the light. For the morning is to them even as the shadow of death: if one know them, they are in the terrors of the shadow of death. …

• Job 31:1

  I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid?

• Job 31:9–12

  If mine heart have been deceived by a woman, or if I have laid wait at my neighbour's door; Then let my wife grind unto another, and let others bow down upon her. For this is an heinous crime; yea, it is an iniquity to be punished by the judges. …

• Proverbs 2:16–19

  To deliver thee from the strange woman, even from the stranger which flattereth with her words; Which forsaketh the guide of her youth, and forgetteth the covenant of her God. For her house inclineth unto death, and her paths unto the dead. …

• Proverbs 5:3–22

  For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil: But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell. …

• Proverbs 6:24–29

  To keep thee from the evil woman, from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids. For by means of a whorish woman a man is brought to a piece of bread: and the adulteress will hunt for the precious life. …

• Proverbs 6:32

  But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.

• Proverbs 6:33

  A wound and dishonour shall he get; and his reproach shall not be wiped away.

• Proverbs 7:5–23

  That they may keep thee from the strange woman, from the stranger which flattereth with her words. For at the window of my house I looked through my casement, And beheld among the simple ones, I discerned among the youths, a young man void of understanding, …

• Proverbs 9:13–18

  A foolish woman is clamorous: she is simple, and knoweth nothing. For she sitteth at the door of her house, on a seat in the high places of the city, To call passengers who go right on their ways: …

• Proverbs 22:14

  The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the LORD shall fall therein.

• Proverbs 23:27

  For a whore is a deep ditch; and a strange woman is a narrow pit.

• Proverbs 23:28

  She also lieth in wait as for a prey, and increaseth the transgressors among men.

• Proverbs 29:3

  Whoso loveth wisdom rejoiceth his father: but he that keepeth company with harlots spendeth his substance.

• Proverbs 30:18–20

  There be three things which are too wonderful for me, yea, four which I know not: The way of an eagle in the air; the way of a serpent upon a rock; the way of a ship in the midst of the sea; and the way of a man with a maid. Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

• Proverbs 31:3

  Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

• Isaiah 57:3

  But draw near hither, ye sons of the sorceress, the seed of the adulterer and the whore.

• Isaiah 57:4

  Against whom do ye sport yourselves? against whom make ye a wide mouth, and draw out the tongue? are ye not children of transgression, a seed of falsehood,

• Jeremiah 3:1

  They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man's, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

• Jeremiah 5:7

  How shall I pardon thee for this? thy children have forsaken me, and sworn by them that are no gods: when I had fed them to the full, they then committed adultery, and assembled themselves by troops in the harlots' houses.

• Jeremiah 5:8

  They were as fed horses in the morning: every one neighed after his neighbour's wife.

• Jeremiah 7:9

  Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;

• Jeremiah 7:10

  And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?

• Jeremiah 23:10

  For the land is full of adulterers; for because of swearing the land mourneth; the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and their force is not right.

• Ezekiel 18:5

  But if a man be just, and do that which is lawful and right,

• Ezekiel 18:6

  And hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbour's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman,

• Hosea 4:1

  Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

• Hosea 4:2

  By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

• Hosea 4:11

  Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

• Matthew 5:28

  But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

• Matthew 5:32

  But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

• Matthew 15:19

  For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

• Matthew 19:9

  And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery.

• Mark 7:21

  For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

• Mark 10:11

  And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife, and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

• Mark 10:12

  And if a woman shall put away her husband, and be married to another, she committeth adultery.

• Mark 10:19

  Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud not, Honour thy father and mother.

• Luke 16:18

  Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

• Acts 15:20

  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

• Acts 15:29

  That ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication: from which if ye keep yourselves, ye shall do well. Fare ye well.

• Romans 1:28

  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

• Romans 1:29

  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

• Romans 1:32

  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

• Romans 7:3

  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

• 1 Corinthians 5:9

  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:

• 1 Corinthians 5:10

  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.

• 1 Corinthians 6:15–18

  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid. What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh. But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. …

• 1 Corinthians 10:8

  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

• 2 Corinthians 12:21

  And lest, when I come again, my God will humble me among you, and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already, and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed.

• Galatians 5:19

  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

• Galatians 5:21

  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

• 1 Timothy 1:9

  Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers,

• 1 Timothy 1:10

  For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;

• 2 Timothy 3:6

  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

• James 2:11

  For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

• 1 Peter 4:3

  For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:

• 1 Peter 4:4

  Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:

• 2 Peter 2:9

  The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

• 2 Peter 2:10

  But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

• 2 Peter 2:14

  Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children:

• Jude 1:7

  Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

• Revelation 2:20–22

  Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds.

• Revelation 9:21

  Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.

Forbidden

• Exodus 20:14

  Thou shalt not commit adultery.

• Leviticus 18:20

  Moreover thou shalt not lie carnally with thy neighbour's wife, to defile thyself with her.

• Leviticus 19:29

  Do not prostitute thy daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land fall to whoredom, and the land become full of wickedness.

• Deuteronomy 5:18

  Neither shalt thou commit adultery.

• Deuteronomy 23:17

  There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a sodomite of the sons of Israel.

• Matthew 5:27

  Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

• Matthew 19:18

  He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

• Luke 18:20

  Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother.

• Acts 15:20

  But that we write unto them, that they abstain from pollutions of idols, and from fornication, and from things strangled, and from blood.

• Romans 13:9

  For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

• Romans 13:13

  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

• 1 Corinthians 5:9–11

  I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.

• 1 Corinthians 6:13

  Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats: but God shall destroy both it and them. Now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord; and the Lord for the body.

• 1 Corinthians 6:15

  Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

• 1 Corinthians 6:18

  Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

• 1 Corinthians 10:8

  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

• Ephesians 4:17

  This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,

• Ephesians 4:19

  Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

• Ephesians 4:20

  But ye have not so learned Christ;

• Ephesians 5:3

  But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;

• Ephesians 5:11

  And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.

• Ephesians 5:12

  For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret.

• Colossians 3:5

  Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:3–5

  For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour; Not in the lust of concupiscence, even as the Gentiles which know not God:

• 1 Thessalonians 4:7

  For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.

• James 2:11

  For he that said, Do not commit adultery, said also, Do not kill. Now if thou commit no adultery, yet if thou kill, thou art become a transgressor of the law.

Forgiveness of. instances of

• Judges 19:1–4

  And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah. And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there four whole months. And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him. …

• John 8:10

  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?

• John 8:11

  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

Penalties for

• Genesis 20:7

  Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine.

• Genesis 26:11

  And Abimelech charged all his people, saying, He that toucheth this man or his wife shall surely be put to death.

• Genesis 38:24

  And it came to pass about three months after, that it was told Judah, saying, Tamar thy daughter in law hath played the harlot; and also, behold, she is with child by whoredom. And Judah said, Bring her forth, and let her be burnt.

• Exodus 22:16

  And if a man entice a maid that is not betrothed, and lie with her, he shall surely endow her to be his wife.

• Exodus 22:17

  If her father utterly refuse to give her unto him, he shall pay money according to the dowry of virgins.

• Leviticus 19:20–22

  And whosoever lieth carnally with a woman, that is a bondmaid, betrothed to an husband, and not at all redeemed, nor freedom given her; she shall be scourged; they shall not be put to death, because she was not free. And he shall bring his trespass offering unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, even a ram for a trespass offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for him with the ram of the trespass offering before the LORD for his sin which he hath done: and the sin which he hath done shall be forgiven him.

• Leviticus 20:10–12

  And the man that committeth adultery with another man's wife, even he that committeth adultery with his neighbour's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death. And the man that lieth with his father's wife hath uncovered his father's nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. And if a man lie with his daughter in law, both of them shall surely be put to death: they have wrought confusion; their blood shall be upon them.

• Leviticus 21:9

  And the daughter of any priest, if she profane herself by playing the whore, she profaneth her father: she shall be burnt with fire.

• Numbers 5:11–29

  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, If any man's wife go aside, and commit a trespass against him, And a man lie with her carnally, and it be hid from the eyes of her husband, and be kept close, and she be defiled, and there be no witness against her, neither she be taken with the manner; …

• Deuteronomy 22:13–29

  If any man take a wife, and go in unto her, and hate her, And give occasions of speech against her, and bring up an evil name upon her, and say, I took this woman, and when I came to her, I found her not a maid: Then shall the father of the damsel, and her mother, take and bring forth the tokens of the damsel's virginity unto the elders of the city in the gate: …

• Deuteronomy 27:20

  Cursed be he that lieth with his father's wife; because he uncovereth his father's skirt. And all the people shall say, Amen.

• Deuteronomy 27:22

  Cursed be he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

• Deuteronomy 27:23

  Cursed be he that lieth with his mother in law. And all the people shall say, Amen.

• 2 Samuel 12:10–12

  Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun.

• Jeremiah 29:22

  And of them shall be taken up a curse by all the captivity of Judah which are in Babylon, saying, The LORD make thee like Zedekiah and like Ahab, whom the king of Babylon roasted in the fire;

• Jeremiah 29:23

  Because they have committed villany in Israel, and have committed adultery with their neighbours' wives, and have spoken lying words in my name, which I have not commanded them; even I know, and am a witness, saith the LORD.

• Ezekiel 16:38

  And I will judge thee, as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged; and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.

• Ezekiel 16:40

  They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.

• Ezekiel 16:41

  And they shall burn thine houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt give no hire any more.

• Ezekiel 23:45

  And the righteous men, they shall judge them after the manner of adulteresses, and after the manner of women that shed blood; because they are adulteresses, and blood is in their hands.

• Ezekiel 23:47

  And the company shall stone them with stones, and dispatch them with their swords; they shall slay their sons and their daughters, and burn up their houses with fire.

• Ezekiel 23:48

  Thus will I cause lewdness to cease out of the land, that all women may be taught not to do after your lewdness.

• Malachi 2:5

  My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him for the fear wherewith he feared me, and was afraid before my name.

• John 8:4

  They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

• John 8:5

  Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

• 1 Corinthians 5:1–13

  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father's wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, …

• 1 Corinthians 6:9

  Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

• 1 Corinthians 6:10

  Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

• 1 Corinthians 10:8

  Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand.

• Galatians 5:19

  Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

• Galatians 5:21

  Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

• Ephesians 5:5

  For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

• Ephesians 5:6

  Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.

• Hebrews 13:4

  Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.

• Revelation 18:9

  And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,

• Revelation 18:10

  Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.

• Revelation 21:8

  But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

• Revelation 22:15

  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie.

Figurative

• Jeremiah 3:2

  Lift up thine eyes unto the high places, and see where thou hast not been lien with. In the ways hast thou sat for them, as the Arabian in the wilderness; and thou hast polluted the land with thy whoredoms and with thy wickedness.

• Ezekiel 16:15

  But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

• Ezekiel 16:16

  And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

Hosea 1

Instances of