What Does The Bible Say About Adulterers? (35 Bible Verses)
The topic of adultery is addressed quite directly in the Bible. Understanding what Scripture says about adulterers can provide clarity and insight into the consequences and the path to forgiveness and restoration. Let’s explore biblical perspectives on this sensitive issue.
What Does The Bible Say About Adulterers
Exodus 20:14 – The Seventh Commandment
You shall not commit adultery.
Proverbs 6:32 – Descriptive Warning
But a man who commits adultery has no sense; whoever does so destroys himself.
Matthew 5:27-28 – Jesus’ Teaching on Adultery
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”
1 Corinthians 6:18-20 – Flee from Sexual Immorality
“Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.”
Proverbs 5:15-20 – Be Satisfied with Your Own Spouse
“Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well. Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers. May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer— may her breasts satisfy you always, may you ever be intoxicated with her love.”
Hebrews 13:4 – The Marriage Bed
“Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.”
Proverbs 6:27-29 – The Consequences of Adultery
“Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished.”
Matthew 19:9 – Jesus on Divorce and Adultery
“I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”
Galatians 5:19-21 – Works of the Flesh
“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Matthew 15:19 – From the Heart
“For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander.”
Proverbs 5:3-4 – Avoid Immoral Women
“For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey, and her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end, she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.”
1 Thessalonians 4:3-5 – God’s Will
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality; that each of you should learn to control your own body in a way that is holy and honorable, not in passionate lust like the pagans, who do not know God.”
Proverbs 6:24-26 – The Seduction of Adultery
“Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched? So is he who sleeps with another man’s wife; no one who touches her will go unpunished. People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving.”
Mark 10:11-12 – Divorce and Remarriage
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.”
2 Peter 2:14 – Eyes Full of Adultery
“With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!”
Luke 16:18 – Divorce and Adultery
“Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Job 31:9-12 – A Covenant with the Eyes
“If my heart has been enticed by a woman, or if I have lurked at my neighbor’s door, then may my wife grind another man’s grain, and may other men sleep with her. For that would have been wicked, a sin to be judged. It is a fire that burns to Destruction; it would have uprooted my harvest.”
James 4:4 – Friendship with the World
“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”
Proverbs 2:16-19 – The Way of Adultery
“Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God. Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.”
Proverbs 7:6-27 – The Adulteress
A detailed warning about the adulteress who entices men and seduces them.
Matthew 19:18 – The Commandments
“Which ones?” he inquired. Jesus replied, “Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony.”
Proverbs 30:20 – The Way of an Adulterous Woman
“This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’”
2 Corinthians 6:14-18 – Unequally Yoked
“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: ‘I will live with them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people.’ Therefore, ‘Come out from them and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you.’ And, ‘I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,’ says the Lord Almighty.”
Job 24:15-18 – The Eye of the Adulterer
“The eye of the adulterer watches for dusk; he thinks, ‘No eye will see me,’ and he keeps his face concealed. In the dark, thieves break into houses, but by day they shut themselves in; they want nothing to do with the light. For all of them, midnight is their morning; they make friends with the terrors of darkness.”
Proverbs 12:22 – False Lips
“The Lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy.”
Malachi 3:5 – God’s Judgment
“So I will come to put you on trial. I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers, and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive the foreigners among you of justice, but do not fear me,” says the Lord Almighty.
Proverbs 23:27-28 – Beware the Adulteress
“For a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit she lies in wait and multiplies the unfaithful among men.”
1 Corinthians 10:8 – The Example of Israel
“We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died.”
Proverbs 9:13-18 – The Way of Folly
“The woman Folly is loud; she is undisciplined and without knowledge. She sits at the door of her house, on a seat at the highest point of the city, calling out to those who pass by, who go straight on their way, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house!’ To those who have no sense, she says, ‘Stolen water is sweet; food eaten in secret is delicious!’ But little do they know that the dead are there, that her guests are deep in the realm of the dead.”
Proverbs 15:3 – The Eyes of the Lord
“The eyes of the Lord are everywhere, keeping watch on the wicked and the good.”
Proverbs 20:14 – The Buyer of Adultery
“‘It’s no good, it’s no good!’ says the buyer—then goes off and boasts about the purchase.”
Ezekiel 23:37 – Judging Adulterous Women
“They have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.”
1 Peter 3:1-6 – Wives and Husbands
“Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as elaborate hairstyles and the wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes. Rather, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight. For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her lord. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.”
Hosea 4:2 – Swearing, Lying, and Murders
“There is only cursing, lying, and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.”
Matthew 5:32 – Divorce and Adultery
“But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”
Proverbs 22:14 – The Mouth of the Adulterous Woman
“The mouth of an adulterous woman is a deep pit; a man who is under the Lord’s wrath falls into it.”
Proverbs 2:16-17 – Deliverance from the Adulteress
“Wisdom will save you also from the adulterous woman, from the wayward woman with her seductive words, who has left the partner of her youth and ignored the covenant she made before God.”
Proverbs 6:25 – Lustful Heart
“Do not lust in your heart after her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.”
Proverbs 2:18-19 – The Destiny of an Adulteress
“Surely her house leads down to death and her paths to the spirits of the dead. None who go to her return or attain the paths of life.”
Proverbs 7:21 – The Empty Seduction
“With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.”
Proverbs 5:9-10 – The Sting of Adultery
“Lest you give your honor to others and your years to the merciless, lest strangers take their fill of your strength, and your labors go to the house of a foreigner.”
Malachi 3:5 – The Judgment of Adulterers
“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the Lord of hosts.”
Proverbs 9:17-18 – Stop and Think
“‘Stolen water is sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.’ But he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of Sheol.”
2 Samuel 11:4 – David and Bathsheba
“Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.”
Proverbs 23:27-28 – Beware the Adulteress
“For a prostitute is a deep pit and a wayward wife is a narrow well. Like a bandit she lies in wait and multiplies the unfaithful among men.”
Proverbs 30:20 – The Way of an Adulterous Woman
“This is the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’”
James 4:4 – Friendship with the World
“You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”
Proverbs 7:21 – The Empty Seduction
“With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.”
