Bible Strands
Proverbs 30:20
This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The passage sits within Agur’s collected sayings, placed between observations on natural navigation and declarations about the earth trembling. It functions as a direct moral description addressed to the reader.
The words — דֶּ֥רֶךְ (derekh) denotes "the way of," establishing a recognizable pattern of conduct, while מְנָאָ֫פֶת (me'na'afet) specifies the adulterous woman at the center of the observation.
The thread — Proverbs 5:6 notes the adulteress fails to track her own unstable path, and Proverbs 7:13 records her brazen approach to seduction. Numbers 5:11 provides the legal context where God instructs Moses on investigating suspected adultery.
Why it lands — The text states the woman eats, cleans her mouth, and claims innocence, presenting unrepentant self-justification as a factual pattern. It requires the reader to recognize the disconnect between her actions and her denial without offering comfort or excuse.
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
Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.
Cross-references
- Proverbs 5:6 She does not consider the path of life; she does not know that her ways are unstable.
- Proverbs 7:13 She seizes him and kisses him; she brazenly says to him:
- Numbers 5:11 Then the LORD said to Moses,