Bible Strands
Exodus 20:14
You shall not commit adultery.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — God addresses Israel with this command in Exodus 20, situated directly between the prohibitions against murder and theft.
The words — The Hebrew לֹא (lo') negates the verb תִּנְאֵף (tinnē'ep̄), literally forming a direct prohibition against the act of adultery.
The thread — Deuteronomy 5:18 repeats the command verbatim, while Hebrews 13:4 and Romans 7:2 apply the boundary to marital fidelity and legal/spiritual union.
Why it lands — The text plainly forbids sexual violation of marriage, establishing a fixed boundary before interpreters extend its application to covenant faithfulness and communal holiness.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Cross-references
- Hebrews 13:4 Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.
- Deuteronomy 5:18 You shall not commit adultery.
- Romans 7:2 For instance, a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives. But if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage.
- 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.”
- Leviticus 20:10 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.
- Matthew 5:27 You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’
- Revelation 21:8 But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”
- Leviticus 18:20 You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.
- Mark 10:11 So He told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
- Jeremiah 5:8 They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.