In this video, we dive deep into the Bible’s teachings on adultery, exploring what Scripture says about this serious issue. We will examine key passages from both the Old and New Testaments, including the Ten Commandments, Jesus’ teachings in the Gospels, and the epistles’ guidance for believers. Learn about the spiritual, relational, and moral implications of adultery, and how the Bible’s teachings can guide us toward living lives of faithfulness and integrity.
Whether you are seeking a better understanding for personal growth, teaching, or simply exploring biblical principles, this video offers clear insights grounded in Scripture. So join us as we learn the God Honest Truth about adultery.
Transcript
So, in Scripture, we see the command do not commit adultery or thou shalt not commit adultery. And we think that we know what adultery is due to our modern cultural mindset. But do we know what Scripture defines as adultery, both physically between humans and also symbolically toward Yahweh? So, that’s what this teaching is all about, all about the scriptural definition and understanding of adultery. So, this teaching is going to be all about adultery, specifically what Scripture says about adultery, the scriptural definition of what is adultery, the consequences behind it.
Also, figurative or symbolic adultery goes in that as well. So, make sure to have your notes out and be ready for this teaching. Now, like always, we have notes that go along with this study, this teaching. So, if you would like those notes, you can go down below and click on the link in the description that will take you to the article post for this drosh. There, you’ll be able to find the video that you see here on your screen.
You’ll be able to find the drosh slides that we put together for this presentation, as well as the transcript and the notes that we took for this subject. All conveniently located for you on GodHonestTruth.com, and a convenient link has been placed for you down in the description, whether you’re watching on a video platform or an audio platform, that link should be there regardless. Now, before we get into the meat and potatoes of adultery and what Scripture says about adultery, what Scripture defines adultery as, we need to learn a few foundational terms before we get into that.
Number one, what is adultery, at least according to modern definitions, modern, you could say cultural definitions? Well, Merriam-Webster defines adultery as voluntary sexual intercourse between a married person and someone other than that person’s current spouse or partner. The Encyclopedia Britannica defines adultery as sexual relations between a married person and someone other than the spouse. So here we’ve got someone who’s married, whether a man or a woman, having outside sexual relations with someone who isn’t their spouse.
That’s what the modern cultural definition of adultery is. Now, when we look in Scripture, the word for adultery in Hebrew is the word na’af, na’af. And according to Strong’s definition, as you can see here on your screen, it means to commit adultery, and also figuratively to apostatize. We’re also going to get into that figurative use of the word adultery later on. Jesenius’ Hebrew lexicon defines na’af as to commit adultery, use both of a male and female, followed by an accusation to commit adultery with a woman.
It’s also applied to the turning aside of Israel from the true God to the worship of idols. Jethro’s Dictionary of the Targums defines adultery, or this word na’af, as to be unchaste, voluptuous, especially to have illicit intercourse to commit adultery. Going on, one more entry from Browndriver Briggs defines na’af as to commit adultery, literally to commit adultery, usually of a man, always with wife of another. Keep that in mind as we go through tonight’s study of women.
And number two, figurative of idolatrous worship, meaning literally commit adultery, or figurative of idolatrous worship. So keep these definitions in mind, that’s what na’af means in Hebrew, means to commit adultery. That’s the Hebrew word for adultery. Going on into the Greek, the Greek word is Strong’s G3431, moi kiu, moi kiu, if I’m pronouncing that correctly. Strong’s definition defines moi kiu as to commit adultery. Straightforward, plain and simple, Thayer’s Greek lexicon defines it as to commit adultery, absolutely to be an adulterer.
To commit adultery with, have unlawful intercourse with another man’s wife. Keep that in mind. Wife, to suffer adultery, be debauched, use of those who at a woman’s solicitation are drawn away to idolatry, to the eating of things sacrificed to idols. And then one more entry, the Greek English lexicon of the New Testament defines moi kiu as sexual intercourse of a man with a married woman other than his own spouse. So we’ve got some general definitions, and it’s starting to get boiled down here.
You can see some of the lexicography, or the entries from the lexicons and concordances, but their definition of adultery is somewhat nuanced and different from our modern cultural definition of adultery that we just read from Merriam-Webster’s and Encyclopædia Britannica. Other resources will probably give you the same thing if you’re looking for the modern cultural definition. But back in the day, especially during the time when scripture was written, adultery meant something much more specific, much more focused and specified than just the generalized definition that we read earlier.
Another terminology that we want to look at during this teaching is the term fornication. Is fornication the same as adultery? Are they different? Are the opposite sides of the same coin? What is fornication? Well, the word in Greek is the word porneia. That may sound familiar because we do get one of our English words from this Greek word porneia. According to Strong’s definition, porneia means parlatory, including adultery and incest, figuratively idolatry. The Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament says that porneia means to engage in sexual immorality of any kind, often with the implication of prostitution.
To engage in illicit sex, to commit fornication, sexual immorality, fornication, prostitution. And finally, the Thayer’s Greek lexicon defines porneia as fornication, properly, of illicit sexual intercourse in general. It is distinguished from mortiu that we just read and is used of adultery also. Of course, it all goes back to depending on context. We learned some foundation. We learned the Greek word for, I’m sorry, the Hebrew word for adultery. We learned the Greek word for adultery and the Greek word for fornication.
So generally speaking, fornication means illicit or otherwise immoral sexual activity between, well, any kind of sexual illicit or immoral sexual activity, which can include adultery. But adultery is one of those finer details within the entire scope of fornication, if that makes any sense. So all adultery is fornication, but not all fornication is adultery. So with those terms defined and we know a little bit more of what we’re talking about, let’s get into the meat and potatoes that we really like and what we should really base all of our doctrines and beliefs on, and that is scripture.
So in the context of scripture, let’s start out with adultery towards humans. We’re not going to get off on anything else, but we’re going to be talking specifically about relations between men and women, especially as it relates to adultery. Everyone’s favorite, which everyone knows, is the Ten Commandments, and within the Ten Commandments in Exodus chapter 20, verse 14, it states, you do not commit adultery. Straightforward, plain and simple, don’t do it. King James states it such as, thou shalt not commit adultery, just don’t do it.
Then going on, looking at Hebrews chapter 13, verse 4, let marriage be respected by all and the bed be undefiled, the Elohim shall judge those who whore and adulterers. So the two verses we’ve read so far are fairly general, can be applied so far from what we can think of, especially according to our modern cultural mindset, can be applied to either men or women. It says, do not commit adultery and you will be judged, those of you who whore and those of you who commit adultery.
However, scripture gets a lot more specific and nuanced than just the generalized terms that we think of in our modern understanding of things like adultery. For instance, Romans chapter 7, verses 2 through 3, for the married woman has been bound by Torah to the living husband, but if the husband dies, she is released from the Torah concerning her husband. So then, while her husband lives, she shall be called an adulteress, as she becomes another man’s. But if her husband dies, she is free from that part of the Torah, so that she is not an adulteress, having become another man’s.
So here we can see that Paul is writing to the church at Rome, telling them, number one, that the Torah is still active and ongoing and implicated in a believer’s life. So contrary to those who would believe that the Torah was done away with at the cross, Paul didn’t believe that, and he’s telling the church at Rome just the opposite, that the Torah is still active in a person’s life, specifically according, I’m sorry, specifically regarding a woman, that if a woman is married, she is bound by the Torah to her husband for as long as he lives, and if she does not abide by that, if she goes off and she becomes another man’s while her husband lives, she will be called an adulteress.
Bad stuff, because it’s told, don’t do that. So we’re getting a little bit of a clue here as to what Scripture defines as adultery. Now if you look all throughout Scripture, you’re not going to find a passage regarding men like this one. There is no passage in Scripture that states that a man, I’m sorry, a married man is bound to his wife so long as she lives. No. This is only relating to women. Now why is that? Because as we go through the rest of Scripture that’s coming up here in just a minute, you’ll notice that what Scripture understands adultery to be and what Scripture defines adultery as is the intercourse between a married woman and a man who is not her husband.
For instance, if we look at the Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics, it states adultery as, I’m sorry, under the entry for adultery, it states, “…but the law continued to regard as adultery only the intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband. Thus, a married man was not regarded as guilty of adultery unless he had intercourse with a married woman other than his wife.” Went on in the Jewish Encyclopedia, “…sexual intercourse of a married woman with any man other than her husband.
The crime can be committed only by and with a married woman, for the unlawful intercourse of a married man with an unmarried woman is not technically adultery in the Torah.” So here we can see that in order for a situation to be adultery, according to Scripture, that you would have to involve a married woman having sexual relations with a man who is not her husband. But does this play out in the Scriptures that we find in the Bible? We look at Exodus chapter 20, verse 17.
You do not covet your neighbor’s house, you do not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, or whatever belongs to your neighbor. So here we can see the things that your neighbor has, including his wife, you are not to covet. But we’re really not getting into the sexual part of it yet. So let’s look at Leviticus chapter 20, verse 10. “…and a man who commits adultery with the wife of another man who commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, the adulterer and the adulteress shall certainly be put to death.” So here we’re getting really down to the nitty-gritty of what Scripture considers adultery to be.
A man who what? Commits adultery. And who’s he committing adultery with? The wife of another man. That is the Scriptural definition of adultery. Notice it all hinges on the married status of the woman. If the man is already married and he takes another wife, that’s not adultery. We examined that during our polygyny series. But if a man, whether he’s married or not, has sexual intercourse with a woman who is married to another man, that is adultery.
Both the man and that married woman have committed adultery. However, it’s much more extensive than just a married woman and someone who’s not her husband. This also extends in the biblical way of thinking to those who are betrothed as well. For instance, we read in Deuteronomy chapter 22, verses 23 to 29. “…when a girl who is a maiden is engaged to a husband and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out of the gate of that city and shall stone them to death with stones, the girl because she did not cry out in the city and the man because he has humbled his neighbor’s wife.
Thus you shall purge the evil from your midst. But if a man finds the girl who is engaged in the field and a man takes hold of her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do no matter to the girl. The girl has no sin worthy of death. For the matter is like a man who rises against his neighbor and murders him, a being. For he found her in the field and she cried out, the engaged girl, but without anyone to save her.
When a man finds a girl who is a maiden who is not engaged and he seizes her and lies with her and they are found out, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl’s father 50 pieces of silver and she is to be his wife because he has humbled her. He is not allowed to put her away all of his days. So, here we can see three different instances that really contrast some of the points that we’re talking about here.
Number one, the first instance that’s in this passage talks about a man and a woman who is engaged or betrothed but not yet married. She’s not yet a wife but she is engaged. So, this man and this engaged woman get together inappropriately and consensually. That’s the context it’s talking about here. They get together inappropriately and consensually and they are both to be put to death because they are guilty of adultery. The scriptural Hebraic way of thinking is that an engaged or betrothed woman is just the same as a wife and is treated just the same in the case of infidelity.
The second instance it’s got here is still regarding an engaged woman but the man, context here, rapes her. So, in this context, she is not considered at fault because she was forced. Only he is put to death because she belonged to another man. The third instance is when a man and a woman who is not engaged, who is not married, have relations consensually. Then he is to go and pay her father some money, take her as his wife, and he cannot divorce her all the days of his life.
So, this one passage right here, these seven verses really illustrate the difference in how scripture regards adultery in relation to a woman’s married status. But, as you can see in this passage, there is no indication of the man’s married status because it is irrelevant. It’s only relevant when it comes to the woman’s married status or betrothal status. Wonderful section to illustrate that. But, back in the Hebraic way of thinking, a woman who is engaged was pretty much like a wife.
For instance, we read from the Jewish Encyclopedia, Unlawful intercourse with a woman betrothed to a man was adultery because the betrothed woman was deemed as inviolable as the married woman. So, in regards to adultery, a betrothed or engaged woman was treated exactly the same as a woman who was married. Now, if we go on to look in Matthew 1, verses 18-19, we see a similar situation right here with the story of Joseph and Mary. And it reads, But the birth of Yeshua Messiah was as follows.
After his mother Miriam was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be pregnant from the set-apart spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being righteous and not wishing to make a show of her, had in mind to put her away secretly. So, you can see here, it starts out this passage saying that his mother Miriam was engaged to Joseph. And then later on down in that passage, it says that Joseph, her husband. So, they weren’t yet married.
They were just engaged. But it’s still referring to Joseph as her husband. Now, during this engagement or betrothal period, Mary comes out as pregnant. And Joseph, knowing he didn’t do anything to aid in this pregnancy because they were not yet married, he sees her pregnant. So, he thinks, obviously, that she has committed adultery. So, he looks and starts thinking about putting her away or divorcing her. So, that’s what it’s talking about here. But just to illustrate how a betrothed or engaged woman was and is regarded according to Scripture.
Now, we go back and look at 2 Samuel 12, verse 7. This is one of the stories of King Dawid. And it reads, Then Nathan said to Dawid, You are the man. Thus said Yahweh Elohim of Israel, I anointed you sovereign over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Shaul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your bosom, and gave you the house of Israel and Yehuda. And if that were not enough, I also would have given you much more.
Why have you despised the word of Yahweh to do evil in his eyes? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and his wife you took to be your wife, and you have killed him with the sword of the children of Ammon. And now the sword does not turn aside from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. So here, King Dawid is being called to task for adultery.
Also murder, but especially adultery here. By taking another man’s wife, sleeping with another man’s wife. He was committing adultery. Now before this, David already had more than one wife. He had Abigail, he had Michael, etc., etc. He had King Saul’s wives. It even says here that Yahweh gave Dawid the wives of King Saul. Of course, after Saul was dead, but he gave those wives to Dawid. He was never guilty of any kind of sin before that for having multiple wives.
Because he, let me show you how to phrase this. He was not committing adultery for taking his multiple wives. He only committed adultery when he took another man’s wife, Uriah the Hittite’s wife. So that really illustrates the whole biblical concept of adultery as well. And there’s various consequences described in Scripture for committing adultery. We’ve already read that the punishment prescribed in Scripture for adultery is death. Being stolen to death, both the man and the woman who engage in adultery.
However, Scripture goes on to warn against adultery and the negative effects that could come from such. Proverbs chapter 6 verses 27 through 29. Would a man take fire to his bosom and his garments not be burned? Would a man walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife. None who touches her goes unpunished. So those who engage in adultery will not go unpunished. There will be consequences.
And unfortunately, the consequences of adultery are far reaching. It’s not just for the adulterer and the adulteress. It’s also for those connected around them. Their family, their friends, their church family. A lot of times work as well. But there’s so many bad things that go along with committing adultery. Both for the adulterer and the adulteress. And that’s not even getting them to the eternal judgment regarding adultery. Going on in Proverbs chapter 6 verses 32 through 34.
He who commits adultery with a woman lacks heart. He who does it destroys his own life. He finds smiting and shame and his reproach is not wiped away. For jealousy enrages a man and he does not spare in the day of vengeance. So yeah, if you’re a man out there and you commit adultery with another man’s wife, you’re taking your life into your own hands. A lot of times people get so emotionally upset that laws might not be of effect when they have that reaction.
You could be looking at serious harm or death for doing so. In fact, there are some places in the world where if you’re caught sleeping with another man’s wife and that man kills you, that’s considered justifiable homicide. So, A, the Almighty says do not commit adultery. B, you’re taking your life into your own hands here in reality, here in the here and now, before we even get to the eternal consequences. So, adultery is very, very bad.
Let’s put it that way. That’s putting it lightly. It’s an abomination. It’s worthy of the death penalty, according to scripture. Just don’t do it. Very, very bad. Going on, we look at James chapter 4, verse 4. Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with Elohim? Whoever, therefore, intends to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Elohim. Nowadays, there’s little regard to sleeping around with whoever, whenever, wherever, for whyever.
Even if the person is married. People nowadays have zero regard for the sanctity of marriage. And if you have that mindset, if you think it’s okay to go out and commit adultery, think again. That is the mindset of the world. And those who are friends with that worldly mindset are enemies with God. James chapter 4, verse 4. Don’t do it. Don’t have that same mindset as the world. Have the same mindset as Yeshua. Have the same mindset as Yahweh and respect the sanctity of marriage.
Both your marriage, if you are married, and the marriage of other people. Now, something that gets a little nuanced here in scripture, but we’re going to work through it, and hopefully you’ll see it the way we’ve come to see it. But if not, that’s okay. We can disagree. But looking at Matthew chapter 5, verse 31 through 32. Nope, hang on. We’ll get to that nuanced part here in just a minute. But anyways, here in Matthew chapter 5, verses 31 through 32, and it has been said, So here Yeshua is telling us that if you divorce your wife for any reason other than adultery, whoring, then you make her commit adultery, but the guilt, the sin, is on you.
Because you divorced her illegitimately. And this is the only didactically, how should I put this? This is the only didactically justifiable reason for divorce in scripture. There’s another reason that I believe can be proven from scripture too, but it’s not didactic in nature. We’ll get to that in just a moment. But here, this is the only didactically stated justifiable reason for divorce. Everything else, no. If it’s financial troubles, that’s not a reason for divorce. If it’s health troubles, not a reason for divorce.
If she burns the biscuits, you can’t divorce her. That’s not biblically justified. Only if she commits adultery can you divorce her. And I would say the same applies to a woman too. If your husband sleeps with another man’s wife, he has committed adultery. And in my estimation, that would give you ground for divorcing him. Like I said, there’s another point that I think we can make for divorce from scripture that’s coming up. Looking at Matthew chapter 19, verse 9.
And I say to you, whoever puts away his wife except on the ground of whoring and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who has been put away commits adultery. So here is a restatement of what Yeshua was teaching earlier on in Matthew chapter 5. That if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than adultery, he is committing adultery. Because he’s causing her to go and be another man’s. So the sin is on him.
Now, the nuanced thing that some people don’t get because they don’t really do deep dives into scripture study, word study, things like that. Let’s look at Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 28. Is it possible there could be a mistranslation here in most, if not all, of the translations? Well, let’s look at that for just a moment and then you make up your mind and decide. Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 28. You heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery.
But I say to you that everyone looking at a woman who lusts for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So here, you would, from the way it’s translated, you would think that you should you would think that Yeshua was teaching that anyone who lusts after any woman, even unmarried women, is committing adultery. But is that true? Let’s look at the word here in Matthew 5, verses 27 through 28, the word for a woman.
That is, I’m sorry, that is Strong’s G1135, the Greek word gune. Strong’s definition defines gune as a woman, specifically a wife, wife or woman. The Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament defines gune as a woman who is married to a man, wife. Then we go on, I’m sorry, it also states the distinctions in meaning of gune, woman, and wife parallel those involving other Greek words. The Thayer’s Greek lexicon defines gune as universally a woman of any age, whether a virgin or married or a widow, a wife of a betrothed woman as a form of address, etc., etc., also in admiration.
So we can see that this gune can be translated as either woman or wife. It all depends on the context. And a lot of words are like that. It can be translated a number of different ways into the English. It just all depends on the context as to what it actually means. So this word specifically, gune, does it mean wife or does it mean woman in general? Well, it’s translated as wife in all these verses here that you can see on your screen, all the way from Matthew through Revelation.
And here is where gune is translated as just woman in general with zero regard to her marital status, again, all the way from Matthew through Revelation. So depending on how a translator translates it, whether it’s woman or wife, really depends on the context and what they think the context is. Also depends on tradition. If the verse has traditionally been translated as woman in general, the translator may be having trouble understanding the context would, out of tradition, translate it as a woman.
So looking back at Matthew chapter 5, verses 27 through 28, you heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not commit adultery. But I say to you that everyone looking at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. Now, as we’ve seen in other verses, the way that scripture defines adultery is based on the status of the woman, whether she’s married or not. If she’s not married, it’s not adultery.
But if she is married and she’s sleeping with a man who’s not her husband, then that is adultery. Yeshua would not break the Torah. He just would not do it. That would be a sin and that would not qualify him to be the spotless Passover lamb. So he’s not going against the rest of Torah. So Yeshua would have understood adultery to be between a married woman and a man who is not her husband. So personally, I don’t think that he would have meant that everyone looking at a woman to lust for her has committed adultery already.
Instead, I think he was stating and intending to say that, but I say to you that everyone looking at another man’s wife to lust for her has already committed adultery. And that’s the reasoning for it. In fact, we go on to look at other verses. For instance, Revelation chapter 19, verse 7. Let us speak glad and rejoice and give him praise for the marriage of the lamb has come and his wife, Gunay, prepared herself. In various translations, this word in, I’m sorry, Revelation 19, 7, is translated in various ways.
For instance, in the Scriptures 2009, it’s got this word translated as wife. In the ESV, it’s got the word translated as bride. A woman who is engaged or betrothed but not yet went through the ceremony. In the ECB, it translates this word, Gunay, as woman. Because the marriage of the lamb has come and his woman prepares herself. So it all depends on the context of what’s being spoken about and it all depends on how the translator wants to translate it.
So that’s why I’m saying in the grand context of the entirety of Scripture, considering what Scripture defines adultery to be, that back in Matthew when Yeshua was talking about lusting after a female, he’s already committed adultery in his heart, that it should be understood in the context of lusting after another man’s wife, not a woman in general. But that’s just our humble opinion. If you happen to disagree, hey, that’s fine. We can disagree. But moving on, adultery is also used in a figurative or symbolic context.
And in order to understand that, we have to understand us, the body, the church, the assembly, whatever you want to call it, as his wife, as the wife of Yahweh, as the wife of Yeshua. Looking in 2 Corinthians chapter 11 verse 2, For I am jealous for you with a jealousy according to Elohim, for I gave you in marriage to one husband to present you as an innocent maiden to Messiah. Again in Revelation chapter 19 verses 7 through 9.
Let us be glad and rejoice and give him praise, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife prepared herself. And to her it was given to be dressed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousnesses of the set-apart ones. So in the Brit Hadashah, we are described as the bride of Yeshua, the bride of Messiah. Back in the Tanakh, we are described as the wife of Yahweh. Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 32.
See, the days are coming, declares Yahweh, when I shall make a renewed covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Yehudah, not like the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I strengthened their hand to bring them out of the land of Mithraim. My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, declares Yahweh. So again, we see that marriage relationship, that symbolism of a marriage relationship between Yahweh, the husband, and the people, the believers, Israel, the Hebrews, us.
It would be the wife. So with that in mind, we now take a look at adultery towards Yahweh. Jeremiah chapter 5 verses 7 through 8. Why should I pardon you for this? Your children have forsaken me and sworn by those that are not mighty ones. When I had filled them up, they then committed adultery, and they thronged to the house of a whore. They were like well-fed horses, every one made after his neighbor’s wife. Committing adultery against Yahweh, that involves going after other gods.
Ezekiel chapter 16 verses 17 through 19. And you took your splendid adornments of my gold and my silver that I gave you, and made for yourself images of a male, and whored with them. And you took your embroidered garments and covered them, and you set my oil and my incense before them, and my food which I gave you, thine flour and oil and honey which I fed you. You set it before them as sweet incense, and so it was, declares the master Yahweh.
So, if we are figuratively and symbolically referred to as the wife of Yahweh, what would adultery be in that context? Well, in that context, adultery would be going after other gods. And just as a man is jealous over his wife going after other men, so Yahweh is jealous after us going after other gods. Other gods. Granted, there are stone and wood and things like that that don’t actually exist, but he’s still a jealous god. He even says so in the Ten Commandments and elsewhere.
Don’t go after other gods, for I am a jealous god. It’s adultery, at least figuratively or symbolically, because you are going against your husband Yahweh, against our husband as the body. That is adultery, in that context, when we go after other gods. Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 30-34. How weak is your heart, declares the master Yahweh. Seeing you do all this, the deeds of a shameless whore, you built your arched place at the head of every way and built your high place in every street.
Yet you were unlike a whore, you scorned a harlot’s deed. The wife who commits adultery, who takes strangers instead of her husband. To all whores they give gifts, but you gave gifts to all your lovers and bribed them to come to you from all around in your whorings. Thus you are different from other women in your whorings, because no one whores after you, and in you giving a harlot’s deed, while a harlot’s deed was not given to you.
Thus you are different, therefore, O whore, hear the word of Yahweh. So in addition to adultery symbolism being used in going after other gods, now we’re also seeing the whore symbolism being used, the prostitute symbolism being used. And he’s chiding them for being worse than regular whores, because they don’t even take a fee for their whoring. Jeremiah chapter 3 verses 6 through 9, And Yahweh said to me in the days of Yoshiahu the sovereign, Have you seen what backsliding Yisrael has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree and there committed whoring.
And after she had done all these, I said, return to me. But she did not return. And her treacherous sister Yehudah saw it. And I saw that for all these causes for which backsliding Yisrael had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a certificate of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Yehudah did not fear, but went and committed whoring too. And it came to be through her frivolous whoring that she defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and wood.
So once again, going after other gods is considered adultery in this context, in this kind of symbolism, because we are dishonoring our spiritual husband who is Yahweh. We go after other gods. Now here it’s talking about Yahweh having two wives, both Yehudah and Yisrael. At this point, the nation had been divided into two, the northern kingdom referred to as Yisrael, and the southern kingdom referred to as Judea or Yehudah. And here it’s talking about them committing adultery, meaning going after other gods.
And he wrote Yisrael a certificate of divorce for her adultery with these other gods. And they were taken in scepticity and dispersed amongst the nations. However, he did not divorce, quote unquote, divorce here. He did not divorce Judea. Instead, he just goes on to talk about her whoring and her adultery with these other gods. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 20. But indeed, as a wife betrays her husband, so you have betrayed me, O house of Yisrael, declares Yahweh.
The betrayal, of course, referring to the adultery with the other gods. Jeremiah chapter 3 verse 1. Elohim said, if a man puts away his wife and she goes from him and becomes another man, does he return to her again? Would not that land be made greatly unclean? But you have committed whoring with many lovers, and would you return to me, declares Yahweh? So, it kind of seems like these people had went out, committed adultery with these other gods by going after other gods.
And some of them are wanting to come back to Yahweh. But he says, and would you return to me? However, there is hope in these situations, even when it’s spiritual adultery that we’ve just been speaking about. Hosea chapter 2 verses 16 through 20. And it shall be in that day, declares Yahweh, that you call me my husband, and no longer call me my Baal. And I shall remove the names of the Baals from their mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.
And in that day I shall make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of the heavens, and with the creeping creatures of the ground, when bow and sword and battle I break from the earth. And I shall make them lie down in safety, and I shall take you as a bride unto me forever, and take you as a bride unto me in righteousness, and in right ruling, and loving commitment, and compassion.
And I shall take you as a bride unto me in trustworthiness, and you shall know Yahweh. So, you look at days coming when the believers will get rid of the false gods, not even remember their names. Instead, return to Yahweh, calling him my husband. So, there’s still hope. And, of course, now we know that there is a path back to Yahweh, back to the Father, through Yeshua, our Messiah, the Son. So, what are some consequences of adultery? If you’re still one of those people who think you can do whatever, whenever, with whoever, however, well, there are consequences.
And pretty serious, long-lasting, far-reaching consequences of adultery. Number one, adultery is a grievous sin against Yahweh. He says, don’t do it. If you do do it, the prescribed action is death. That’s how grievous a sin adultery is to Yahweh. Adultery tarnishes the faith. He sees, or the world sees, believers going out there, committing adultery, having no respect for the sanctity of marriage. And they think, well, what’s the difference between these believers and Yahweh and the rest of the world? They’re all the same, so no reason to go searching after and following after Yahweh.
Adultery tarnishes the faith, something awful. Adultery produces guilt and shame, not only in the offender, but also in the victims. I mean, if you’re the offender and you commit adultery, there’s going to be some guilt and shame there after the fact. It may not be immediate, it may take a while, but there will be guilt and shame, and you’ll have to live with that. The victim of adultery, the wife or husband who is the victim of adultery, has to live with that guilt and shame as well.
And there’s no way to describe to you what that guilt and shame is for the victim, but it is there. You’re impacting your spouse when you commit adultery. Or when you sleep with another man’s wife, you are causing them to feel guilt and shame for what’s went on, even though they are the innocent victim. There’s a definite loss of trust. If your spouse commits adultery, it’s hard to trust them anymore. If you’re a man and your wife commits adultery, it’s extremely hard to come back to a place of trust with her.
It’s possible, but it’s very, very hard. If you’re a woman whose husband has committed adultery with another man’s wife, it comes across as him not having respect for the sanctity of marriage. That trust is gone because of that. It’ll be very hard, likewise, to come back to a place of trust. Again, it can be done, but it’s extremely hard. There is a loss of intimacy in cases of adultery. If you know that your wife is out sleeping with other men, it’s that intimacy connection gets disintegrated almost immediately.
Likewise, if you are a woman and your husband goes out, sleeps with another man’s wife, there’s going to be some intimacy issues there afterwards because of the sin that he has committed. It lowers the quality and the purity of the relationship. After all we’ve discussed, it’s pretty obvious how that happens. Adultery can and a lot of times does lead to divorce. Once again, adultery is the only didactically justifiable reason from Scripture for divorce. So, if your spouse commits adultery, you are biblically justified in divorcing them.
Now, with that, let’s go ahead and point out that Scripture does not command you to divorce your adulterous spouse. You’re not commanded to divorce them, but you are permitted to divorce them, if that makes sense. You can give them another chance, try to work through it. Or if you want to divorce them, you’re biblically justified for doing so because they committed adultery. There is loneliness a lot of times for obvious reasons. The intimacy, the trust, the emotional connection has been destroyed.
So, even though you might still be married for a time, you still feel lonely because all of that is gone. It leads to sickness. I mean, if you’re going out and you’re sleeping around with people you’re not married to, and especially if you’re sleeping with another man’s wife or if your wife is sleeping with other men, this has a great chance of bringing in various sicknesses and diseases such as STDs and whatnot, yeast infections, I mean, you name it.
Adultery can lead to some very serious diseases and sicknesses. It leads to counseling. If you decide to try and work it out and you want to go to marriage counseling, counseling is good. I mean, not knocking anyone who goes to counseling because it’s very beneficial, but counseling is expensive. And if you commit adultery and they’re therefore having to go to marriage counseling, that’s going to be a strain on the wallet. It leads to illegitimate children. Maybe your wife gets pregnant with another man.
That would be an illegitimate child. If your husband impregnates another man’s wife, that would be an illegitimate child. And that’s not good as well. That destroys the family. Disappointment to children and family. Obviously, you do something as grievous, as horrid, as abominable as adultery, you’re obviously going to be a disappointment to your children, if you have any, and your family and friends who know you. You’re going to be looked down upon. And that’s just a consequence of your adultery.
You want that feel-good moment with that person you should not be having that kind of feel-good moment with. It lasts but a moment, but the consequences are lifelong a lot of times. The consequences are not just for a moment. They go far-reaching into the future and far-reaching into your social and family circles. And with all these consequences, it obviously has an impact on the family. It can destroy families, break them apart, and make them to be not that basic building block of society.
And since a family is the basic building block of society, if you destroy that building block, so goes the family, so goes society. We look at the Jewish Encyclopedia. It states under the entry for adultery, Although in ancient society and law, adultery was regarded as a private wrong committed against the husband, public law later on exercised control of its investigation and punishment, for organized society was impossible unless it punished this crime, which saps the very root of the social life.
Thou shalt not commit adultery is not merely a command not to tamper with the domestic affairs of another, but a warning to refrain from unsettling the foundations of society. So in a sense, adultery itself has an effect not only on your immediate family, but society as a whole. It’s detrimental both to the family and therefore an extension to society. Now, we mentioned earlier that adultery was the only didactically stated reason in scripture for divorce, but that we also stated there was a second reason that we think can be applied for the justification of divorce, and that is the preservation of life.
In Judaism, it’s referred to as the Akua Nefesh, and you can go and do your own research right there. But basically, the concept is the bending of the Torah to preserve life. Now, we all know that we should follow and uphold Torah as much as we can, but can we bend it for the preservation of life? Is there justification there for doing such a thing? When we look at Matthew chapter 12, verses 3 through 5, So, number one, let’s look at this last verse.
Yahweh states that He desires compassion and not offering. We go back and we see that He desires the compassion and not the burning of incense and all this other stuff. He wants mainly the heart, but yes the Torah for the preservation of life comes along with that.
And Yahweh understands that. Yeshua was trying to explain this. And we go on to look in Hosea chapter 6, verse 6. For I delight in loving commitment and not slaughtering, and in the knowledge of Elohim more than ascending offerings. So we’ve got the Torah, we’ve got the commands, we’ve got what to do, what not to do. But what’s the main thing above all that that Yahweh wants? Here we’re told specifically the knowledge of Elohim. So there is sometimes bending to the Torah for certain instances.
Rare, extremely rare. I’ll give you that, extremely rare. But there is sometimes the bending of Torah. Going along with this whole concept of the preservation of life and the bending of the Torah is Matthew chapter 12, verses 11 through 12. And He said to them, What man is there among you who has one sheep, and if it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, shall not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more worth is a man than a sheep? So it is right to do good on the Sabbath.
Once again, we’re told to rest and not work on Shabbat. But here Yeshua is stating that if your sheep falls into a pit, if life is in danger, who of you would not do the work necessary to get that sheep out of the pit? So here Yeshua is going on this concept of the preservation of life, bending the Torah to save a life. Likewise, we would extend this to the issue of marriage and divorce. If a person is in a marriage where they are in physical danger, their life is at risk.
If they are being beaten physically, their life is at risk. In that case, we would submit that it would be biblically justified to divorce the abuser. Now we didn’t used to be of this opinion, and then we come across this whole concept of the preservation of life or nekuach nefesh. Tikuach nefesh. And now we think, yeah, this is a justifiable reason according to what we find in Scripture to divorce an abusive, physically abusive spouse. Now if you’re having trouble, and even if you want to try and make it work with a physically abusive spouse, there is ways of going about that to try and correct the situation, get it back on the straight, correct path it’s supposed to be on.
Going to the elders, seeking their counsel and things like that. For instance, in Matthew chapter 18, verses 15 through 17. And if your brother stands against you, go and convict him between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother, but if he does not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses, every word might be established. And if he refuses to hear them, say it to the assembly, and if he refuses even to hear the assembly, let him be to you like the nations and a tax collector.
So if there’s issues, even sometimes with an abusive spouse, you can go get some of the elders to come with you, try and work through it. Get the body of believers within your local assembly, your local church, to step in if the elder thing doesn’t work. You can try that route, and this is what’s laid out in Scripture. But at the end of the day, if your life is in danger from an abusive spouse, we think, in our opinion, that it’s biblically justified to divorce them for the sake of preservation of life.
Your life matters. Protect your life. So, in summary, adultery is sexual relations between a married woman and a man who isn’t her husband. That’s how Scripture understands and defines adultery. Sex with a betrothed or engaged woman is considered adultery according to Scripture. Unjustly divorcing your wife is adultery. If you’re going to divorce your wife, you better have justifiable reasons for doing so. One, as it comes straight from Scripture, she has committed adultery. Or two, as we have pointed out, and the way we interpret it, if your spouse is abusive, you can divorce her.
We are considered to be the bride or wife of Yahweh and then Yeshua. Adultery has severe consequences associated with it. And just a little quote that I came up with to try to encapsulate all this and something you might be able to remember. The perceived momentary pleasure of adultery produces lifelong misery and unhappiness, not just for the person committing adultery, but also for those around them and connected to them. It really does. Adultery has far-reaching and long-lasting negative consequences that go with it.
Just don’t do it. And remember, Scripture defines adultery as sexual relations between a married woman and a man who is not her husband. It all depends on the marital status of the woman, according to Scripture. And that’s just the God-honest truth.
