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Context No. 837 of 4322 · Proverbs

Context · Reflection

Proverbs 6:17-35: in context

17arrogant eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief, 19a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers. 20My son, keep your father’s commandment, and don’t forsake your mother’s teaching. 21Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck. 22When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you. 23For the commandment is a lamp, and the law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life, 24to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife’s tongue. 25Don’t lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids. 26For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life. 27Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned? 28Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched? 29So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished. 30Men don’t despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry, 31but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house. 32He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul. 33He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away. 34For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won’t spare in the day of vengeance. 35He won’t regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.

Proverbs 6 opens with a famous list of the things the LORD hates, six of them, seven that are an abomination to him: proud eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that plots evil, feet that run to do harm, a false witness who breathes out lies, and, saved for last as the climax, one who sows discord among brothers. It is worth noticing that the list ends not with murder or lies but with the person who splits people apart. Then the chapter turns to a long warning against adultery, and it makes its case with an image no one can argue with.

Can a man carry fire in his lap, it asks, and his clothes not be burned? Can someone walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? The questions answer themselves. Fire burns; that is simply what it does, and no amount of confidence or good intentions changes it. So it is, the proverb says, with the man who goes in to his neighbor's wife; he will not go unpunished, and, it adds bluntly, he destroys his own soul. The deception the passage is aiming at is the quiet belief that I, unlike everyone else, can handle this particular fire. I can hold it close, play with it, keep it in my lap, and somehow not be burned. Proverbs treats that belief as exactly as foolish as expecting to walk on coals unscorched. The consequences of some sins are not a threat God chooses to impose; they are built into the thing, as certain as heat, and the person carrying the fire is already smoldering whether he feels it yet or not.

Proverbs asks whether a man can carry fire in his lap and not be burned, and lets the obvious answer stand. What fire am I carrying close, sure that I am the exception who can handle it without getting scorched?

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