Proverbs 6:27

New Century Version

You cannot carry hot coals against your chest without burning your clothes,

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Can a man embrace fireand his clothes not be burned?

Hebrew Names Version
Can a man scoop fire into his lap, And his clothes not be burned?

King James Version
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

English Standard Version
Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned?

New English Translation
Can a man hold fire against his chest without burning his clothes?

Amplified Bible
Can a man take fire to his chest And his clothes not be burned?

New American Standard Bible
Can anyone take fire in his lap And his clothes not be burned?

World English Bible
Can a man scoop fire into his lap, And his clothes not be burned?

Geneva Bible (1587)
Can a man take fire in his bosome, and his clothes not be burnt?

Legacy Standard Bible
Can a man take fire in his bosomAnd his clothes not be burned?

Berean Standard Bible
Can a man embrace fire and his clothes not be burned?

Contemporary English Version
If you carry burning coals, you burn your clothes;

Complete Jewish Bible
Can a man carry fire inside his shirt without burning his clothes?

Darby Translation
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his garments not be burned?

Easy-to-Read Version
If you drop a hot coal in your lap, your clothes will be burned.

George Lamsa Translation
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

Good News Translation

Lexham English Bible
Can a man carry fire in his lap, and his clothes not burn?

Literal Translation
Can a man take fire into his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Maye a man take fyre in his bosome, and his clothes not be brent?

American Standard Version
Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

Bible in Basic English
May a man take fire to his breast without burning his clothing?

JPS Old Testament (1917)
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

King James Version (1611)
Can a man take fire in his bosome, and his clothes not be burnt?

Bishop's Bible (1568)
May a man take fire in his bosome, and his clothes not be brent?

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Shall any one bind fire in his bosom, and not burn his garments?

English Revised Version
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Whether a man mai hide fier in his bosum, that hise clothis brenne not;

Update Bible Version
Can a man take fire in his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

Webster's Bible Translation
Can a man take fire in his bosom, and his clothes not be burned?

New King James Version
Can a man take fire to his bosom, And his clothes not be burned?

New Living Translation
Can a man scoop a flame into his lap and not have his clothes catch on fire?

New Life Bible
Can a man carry fire in his arms, and his clothes not be burned?

New Revised Standard
Can fire be carried in the bosom without burning one's clothes?

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Can a man snatch up fire in his bosom, and, his clothes, not be burned?

Douay-Rheims Bible
Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn?

Revised Standard Version
Can a man carry fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?

Young's Literal Translation
Doth a man take fire into his bosom, And are his garments not burnt?

New American Standard Bible (1995)
Can a man take fire in his bosom And his clothes not be burned?

Contextual Overview

²⁰ My son, keep your father's commands, and don't forget your mother's teaching. ²¹ Keep their words in mind forever as though you had them tied around your neck. ²² They will guide you when you walk. They will guard you when you sleep. They will speak to you when you are awake. ²³ These commands are like a lamp; this teaching is like a light. And the correction that comes from them will help you have life. ²⁴ They will keep you from sinful women and from the pleasing words of another man's unfaithful wife. ²⁵ Don't desire her because she is beautiful. Don't let her capture you by the way she looks at you. ²⁶ A prostitute will treat you like a loaf of bread, and a woman who takes part in adultery may cost you your life. ²⁷ You cannot carry hot coals against your chest without burning your clothes, ²⁸ and you cannot walk on hot coals without burning your feet. ²⁹ The same is true if you have sexual relations with another man's wife. Anyone who does so will be punished.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Job 31:9-12, Hosea 7:4-7, James 3:5

Reciprocal: Job 31:12 - General Proverbs 5:8 - General

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Can a man take fire in his bosom,.... A whore is compared to fire, and is so called by the poets o; and it is a saying of Pythagoras,

"it is a like thing to fall into fire and into a woman p;''

the Hebrew words אש, "esh", "fire", and אישה, "ishah", "a woman", have some affinity in sound; and the phrase of taking it "into the bosom" fitly expresses the impure embraces of a harlot;

and his clothes not be burned? he cannot, it is impossible; and equally vain is it to think that a man can commit whoredom and it not be known, or he not hurt by it in his name and substance, or in his body, soul, and life.

o Plauti Bacehides, Act. 4. Sc. 9. v. 15. "Accede ad ignem hunc", Terent. Eunuehus, Act. 1. Sc. 2. v. 5. p το εις πυρ και εις γυναικα, apud Maximum, Eclog. c. 39.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 6:27. Can a man take fire — These were proverbial expressions, the meaning of which was plain to every capacity.