What Does Deuteronomy 5:18 Mean in the King James?
Neither shalt thou commit adultery.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Adultery is named as a breach of an intimate bond, not merely a private desire.
THE MEANING
This command places a clear boundary around intimate fidelity in the reader’s life now. Adultery is named as a breach of a real bond, not an abstract lapse.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that a private sexual betrayal leaves the bond untouched.
THE ROOT
תִּנְאָף
tin'af
GROWS FROM
נ־א־ף
To commit adultery; sexual betrayal within a marriage bond.
The verb תִּנְאָף (tin’af, commit adultery) comes from נָאַף (na’af, commit adultery), whose related forms name both the act and the person who commits it. The root stays specific to sexual betrayal, keeping the command’s focus on a concrete breach of intimacy rather than generic disloyalty.
ALSO GROWS
no'ef: Adulterer; one who commits adultery.
נֹאֵף
The same root names the person who enacts the act forbidden here.
ni'uf: Adultery; the act of sexual betrayal.
נִאֻף
This noun carries the same specific breach as the command’s verb.
THE PATTERN
Scripture treats sexual fidelity as a boundary that protects the truth of intimate bonds.
Thou shalt not commit adultery.But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:THE THREAD
But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.The word “committeth adultery” in Proverbs shares the root נ־א־ף (na’af, commit adultery) with the command in Deuteronomy. Proverbs opens the command further by showing betrayal’s harm reaching into the betrayer’s own life.
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