Adultery

Passages on this topic

From Nave’s Topical Bible (1896), a historical reference index. The groupings are Nave’s; the verses are shown in the text used across this site.

General scriptures concerning

• Genesis 20:3 One night, however, God came to Abimelech in a dream and told him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken, for she is a married woman.”
• 2 Samuel 12:14 Nevertheless, because by this deed you have shown utter contempt for the word of the LORD, the son born to you will surely die.”
• Job 24:15–18 The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face. In the dark they dig through houses; by day they shut themselves in, never to experience the light. For to them, deep darkness is their morning; surely they are friends with the terrors of darkness! T…
• Job 31:1 “I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
• Job 31:9–12 If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door, then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her. For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged. For it is a fire that burns down to Abaddon; it would root out my entire har…
• Proverbs 2:16–19 It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life.
• Proverbs 5:3–22 Though the lips of the forbidden woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil, in the end she is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a double-edged sword. Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight to Sheol. She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstab…
• Proverbs 6:24–29 to keep you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes. For the levy of the prostitute is poverty, and the adulteress preys upon your very life. Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?…
• Proverbs 6:32–33 He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself. Wounds and dishonor will befall him, and his reproach will never be wiped away.
• Proverbs 7:5–23 that they may keep you from the adulteress, from the stranger with seductive words. For at the window of my house I looked through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the youths, a young man lacking judgment, crossing the street near her corner, strolling down the road to her house…

See Lasciviousness

See Rape

See Sensuality

See Sodomy

See Whore

See Whoredom

Forbidden

• Exodus 20:14 You shall not commit adultery.
• Leviticus 18:20 You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
• Leviticus 19:29 You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity.
• Deuteronomy 5:18 You shall not commit adultery.
• Deuteronomy 23:17 No daughter or son of Israel is to be a shrine prostitute.
• Matthew 5:27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’
• Matthew 19:18 “Which ones?” the man asked. Jesus answered, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness,
• Luke 18:20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not bear false witness, honor your father and mother.’”
• Acts 15:20 Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals, and from blood.
• Romans 13:9 The commandments “Do not commit adultery,” “Do not murder,” “Do not steal,” “Do not covet,” and any other commandments, are summed up in this one decree: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

Forgiveness of. Instances of

• Judges 19:1–4 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months…
• John 8:10–11 Then Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are your accusers? Has no one condemned you?” “No one, Lord,” she answered. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Now go and sin no more.”

Penalties for

• Genesis 20:7 Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, be aware that you will surely die — you and all who belong to you.”
• Genesis 26:11 So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”
• Genesis 38:24 About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”
• Exodus 22:16–17 If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and sleeps with her, he must pay the full dowry for her to be his wife. If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, the man still must pay an amount comparable to the bridal price of a virgin.
• Leviticus 19:20–22 If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting as his gu…
• Leviticus 20:10–12 If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife— with the wife of his neighbor— both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death. If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. If a man li…
• Leviticus 21:9 If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
• Numbers 5:11–29 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),
• Deuteronomy 22:13–29 Suppose a man marries a woman, has relations with her, and comes to hate her, and he then accuses her of shameful conduct and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman and had relations with her, but I discovered she was not a virgin.” Then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring…
• Deuteronomy 27:20 ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Figurative

• Jeremiah 3:2 “Lift up your eyes to the barren heights and see. Is there any place where you have not been violated? You sat beside the highways waiting for your lovers, like a nomad in the desert. You have defiled the land with your prostitution and wickedness.
• Ezekiel 16:15–16 But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things sho…
• Hosea 1 This is the word of the LORD that came to Hosea son of Beeri in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and of Jeroboam son of Jehoash, king of Israel. When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, He told him, “Go, take a prostitute as your wife and have children of adultery, be… (whole chapter)

See Whoredom

See Idolatry

Instances of

Sodomites

• Genesis 19:5–8 They called out to Lot, saying, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have relations with them!” Lot went outside to meet them, shutting the door behind him. “Please, my brothers,” he pleaded, “don’t do such a wicked thing! Look, I have two daughters who have nev…

Lot

• Genesis 19:31–38 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us, as is the custom over all the earth. Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.” So that night they got their father drunk with wine…

Shechem

• Genesis 34:2 When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force.

Reuben

• Genesis 35:22 While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

Judah

• Genesis 38:1–24 About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. Again she conceived and gave birth…

Potiphar's wife

• Genesis 39:7–12 and after some time his master’s wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, “Sleep with me.” But he refused. “Look,” he said to his master’s wife, “with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in his house, and he has entrusted everything he owns to my care. No one in this house is…

The Levite's concubine

• Judges 19:2 But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months,

The Gibeahites

• Judges 19:22–25 While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the wicked men of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they said to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him!” The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, my…

Gilead

• Judges 11:1 Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father.

Samson

• Judges 16:1 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute and went in to spend the night with her.

Sons of Eli

• 1 Samuel 2:22 Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

David

• 2 Samuel 11:1–5 In the spring, at the time when kings march out to war, David sent out Joab and his servants with the whole army of Israel. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained in Jerusalem. One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And fro…

Amnon

• 2 Samuel 13:1–20 After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom. Amnon was sick with frustration over his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed implausible for him to do anything to her. Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s bro…

Absalom

• 2 Samuel 16:22 So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

Israelites

• Exodus 32:6 So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
• Exodus 32:25 Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies.
• Jeremiah 29:23 For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”
• Ezekiel 22:9–11 Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency. In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity. One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s…
• Ezekiel 33:26 You have relied on your swords, you have committed detestable acts, and each of you has defiled his neighbor’s wife. Should you then possess the land?’
• Hosea 7:4 They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

Herod

• Matthew 14:3–4 Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because John had been telling him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.”
• Mark 6:17–18 For Herod himself had ordered that John be arrested and bound and imprisoned, on account of his brother Philip’s wife Herodias, whom Herod had married. For John had been telling Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife!”
• Luke 3:19 But when he rebuked Herod the tetrarch regarding his brother’s wife Herodias and all the evils he had done,

The Samaritan woman

• John 4:17–18 “I have no husband,” the woman replied. Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband. In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

The woman brought to Jesus in the temple

• John 8:4–11 and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such a woman. So what do You say?” They said this to test Him, in order to have a basis for accusing Him. But Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground with His finger. When they continue…

Corinthians

• 1 Corinthians 5:1–5 It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this? Although I am absent…

Heathen

• Ephesians 4:17–19 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardness of their hearts. Having lost…
• 1 Peter 4:3 For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.