Classic KJV - Proverbs 6:26

First we need to look at the translation of the text carefully. I’ve found three different translations for the 26th verse, and each communicates a different financial message:

1. The price of a prostitute is a loaf of bread (ESV, The Message).
2. Hiring a prostitute leads to financial ruin, even to begging for bread (KJV).
3. Hiring a prostitute reduces a person to mere chattel, like a loaf of bread (NASB).

Sex at a Discount—Quality Prostitutes Ain’t Cheap

The ESV translation says, “The price of a prostitute is only a loaf of bread, but a married woman hunts down a precious life.” And The Message says, “You can buy an hour with a whore for a loaf of bread, but a wanton woman may well eat you alive.” So both may give the impression that the only financial cost in hiring a prostitute is the loaf of bread, with no further consequences. Not likely.

First, the start of the verse makes no sense, unless conditions are very desperate—as during a famine. A loaf costs less than an hour’s wage, but a prostitute’s services typically far more. In the days of the Jewish patriarch Judah, the going rate was a young goat (Genesis 38:22-23). A kid is worth more than a loaf of bread. So it’s noteworthy that the Hebrew word for bread referred to a small circular loaf. Even where prostitution is government-regulated (like Denmark) the cost far exceeds a loaf of bread.

The Message and ESV insert ideas not found in the Hebrew. These new twists seem to trivialize immorality with a prostitute. The Message adds the expression “an hour” and the ESV adds “only.”

A Caution with Translation One

The ESV does provide this footnote: ‘Or (cf. Septuagint…) “for a prostitute leaves a man with nothing but a loaf of bread.” Yet, if read literally, both the ESV and The Message seem to suggest that prostitution is cheap, but adultery with a married woman expensive. So in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (V.5), Allen P. Ross concludes: “A harlot brings a man to poverty but the married woman seeks death.” The one is cheap and the other expensive? Pick the cheaper option? As a whole, the Bible upholds that prostitution, adultery and even deliberate, chosen mental fantasies (the lust condemned by Jesus in Matthew 5.28) destroy our lives. God’s natural design is one man and one woman—period.

Translations Two and Three

The second translation by the KJV—“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”—is illustrated biblically by the story of the prodigal son. He spent his money on prostitutes and ended up begging for bread (Luke 15:13-17).

The third rendering of this verse by the NASB—“For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread, and an adulteress hunts for the precious life”—is like the second, revealing the immediate squalor of prostitution. In hiring a woman, we become sordid objects ourselves, as common as a loaf of bread. The passage then adds that adultery with a married woman invokes the wrath of her jealous husband (and the whole community?), leading to financial disaster.

Why spend so much time with this verse? Simply: Sexual vice in any form leads to financial ruin, whether quickly or slowly.

Cost of Prostitution

But what about immorality with a prostitute, a divorcee, or a single woman—are those acts financially safer? I think not. The true cost of prostitution includes:

• A natural and unavoidable sense of guilt;
• A fear of public shame;
• A stained reputation;
• A crippled career or job loss;
• Sexually transmitted diseases.

Classic Comments

Classic commentator Adam Clarke suggests we ignore the distinction in the Hebrew between the prostitute and the adulteress:

In following lewd women, a man is soon reduced to poverty and disease. While the man hires the whore for a single loaf of bread, the woman thus hired taketh his precious life. She extracts his energy and poisons his constitution. In the first clause (ishshah zonah) is plainly a prostitute; but should we render (esheth) in the second clause, an adulteress? I think not. The versions in general join (esheth ish), together, which, thus connected, signify no more than the wife of a man; and out of this we have made adulteress.

In the Eerdmaans Bible Commentary (3rd Edition 1987), A. F. Walls writes: “It is not clear whether the teacher distinguishes two types of immoral women. Probably the same woman is referred to in both parts of the verse.”

ANALYSIS PART TWO

The text then becomes a little confusing: “[30] Men do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry, [31] but when he is found, he must repay sevenfold; he must give all the substance of his house.” Is the “he” in [31] the “thief” in [30], or the adulterer in [26-27]?

Sevenfold is Not Seven Times

First we must ask, what does “repay sevenfold” mean? It might be saying that a hungry thief, caught stealing food, must repay it seven times, even if it costs his entire household. But how could someone desperate enough to steal food repay seven times the food stolen? Could he have anything in his house for repayment? Even if forced into slavery, it would not take him too long (a week?) to cover the cost of some food.

The Legal Limit

The maximum legal recompense for stealing consumables like bread was four loaves in return (Exodus 22:1, Luke 19:8). So the expression, “repay sevenfold,” can’t be taken as strict arithmetic, but figuratively to mean “full and complete repayment.” The LORD himself used the expression “sevenfold” figuratively when He pronounced the “sevenfold” penalty of death, “lest anyone kill Cain in vengeance,” Genesis 4:15. A person can’t be killed seven times.

Two Different People

So, I don’t believe verses [30-31] are describing the same person. This is suggested by the word “but” beginning [31]. The conjunction “but” is contrasting instead of combining. Unfortunately, the text is made a little more confusing when the KJV inserts another “but” at the start of [32]. That might be just emphasis for the first “but,” but it’s not in the Hebrew.

Conclusion? The passage is proclaiming the high cost, not of a thief stealing food from hunger—after all, there’s no stigma in that, no enduring vengeance!—but of our sexual vice. The cost is first financial, but then gets much more personal, eventually taking our health and even our lives.

More Classic Comments

So the K&D Commentary explains:

One does not condemn a man who is a thief through poverty, he is pitied; while the adulterer goes to ruin under all circumstances of contempt and scorn. A theft may be made good, and that abundantly; but adultery and its consequences are irreparable.

Uncleanness is Pollution

Matthew Henry identifies five adverse results of “uncleanness” or sexual filthiness:

1. “It is a sin that impoverishes men. Job describes it as a fire that consumes right to hell and wastes all of a man’s profit (Job 31:12).
2. “Death. The Law of Moses (Leviticus 20:10) exacted the death penalty for the adulteress and adulterer… most cultures do not enforce this [but] God’s standard does not change.
3. “Guilt upon the conscience. This invisible pain and misery cannot be shaken without God’s pardon… as unavoidable as the consequences of hugging fire. Burning and incredible pain…
4. “It ruins one’s reputation more severely than the sin of stealing.
5. “It exposes the adulterer to the rage of a jealous husband. Even if the law does not punish adultery severely, there is the risk that a jealous husband will take matters into his own hands…”

Porn is Real Pollution

The mindless hedonism, championed by Hugh Hefner and his Playboy delusions, proclaims the opposite. It contends that restraining our lust will cost us our happiness. What a lie! Look at the empty shell Hefner became! God warns that vice destroys our very selves. The pornography industry bleeds a country’s economy and its citizens’ health—physical and mental. Pornography’s social cost is recognized by some ethical investors. A small minority refuse to invest in companies promoting pornography.

Pornography becomes an addiction. Some years ago, even trendy Gentleman’s Quarterly ran a cover story on the new plague of impotence, caused by porn addiction. Marriages collapse when wives discover their husband’s addiction, and some husbands have committed suicide. There is help. The problem is so rampant, every city now has a Pornography Anonymous chapter (PA). Call a pastor.

Wealthy but Dead-ended

What about those who seem wealthy, but live sordid lives? The text says that their hold on wealth is brief. What if we’re not caught? It doesn’t matter. The costs may be delayed, but they are certain. Gifts do not placate angry husbands. Some sins are so personal, they’re beyond reconciliation.

The text warns us never to surrender to personal lust, always to count the full cost to our soul and reputation. As the poet Sir Philip Sidney, said, “Every base occupation makes one sharp in its practice and dull in every other.”

Professional Infidelity (Source: Calgary Herald 2 Feb. 2010)

In February 2010, investors got cold feet over an internet infidelity promoter, Avid Life Media Inc. Avid ran “adult” dating websites, including one promoting extramarital affairs. But it had problems getting a date. The Toronto firm planned to go public on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX), seeking $60 million from its initial public offering (IPO). However, said media reports, its efforts to woo investors met a cool response. “They’re putting that plan on hold, citing market conditions,” said an anonymous insider. Avid Life Media could not be reached for comment, but later reports suggested that banks and big investors were hesitant, despite Avid’s solid financial record.

Our Maker, Saviour, and Friend

How did Jesus handle adultery?

Jesus showed great compassion to those entangled in the sin of immorality. When the religious leaders confronted him with an adulteress, caught in the act, Jesus protected her from being stoned to death (John 8:3-11). However… however, Jesus also told her to “Go and sin no more!”

Repentance and a changed life are far better solution than capital punishment. Jesus came to save lives, not to destroy them.