Proverbs 30:20

Pro 30:20 Such [is] the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Ver. 20. So is the way of an adulterous woman.] The strumpet, when she hath eaten stolen bread, hath such dexterity in wiping her lips, that not the least crumb shall stick to them for discovery. So that Agur here shows it to be as hard to find it out as the way of an eagle in the air, the way of a serpent on a rock, &c. Unless taken in the manner, she stoutly denies the action. And if so taken, yet

“ Nihil est audacius illis,

Deprensis, iram atque animos a crimine sumunt. ”

- Juvenal, Satyr. 6.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Pro 30:20. Such — So secret and undiscernible; is the way of an adulterous woman — Of one that secretly lives in the sin of adultery. As “artful men insinuate themselves into the affections of young women, and seduce them to their ruin, by an almost infinity of stratagems, which can never be all unravelled, so also the adulterous wife uses much ingenuity to impose on her husband, to shun detection, and to escape shame and punishment, by schemes and devices which cannot all be enumerated. Every new crime intended, or committed, gives rise to some new artifice; as the ship, in some degree, deviates every time from the course which it steered before. The object of the seducer is to prevail over his prey, and that of the adulteress to conceal her guilt; and the whole extent of their subtlety and ingenuity is employed to effect those purposes.” — Scott.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30:20 The writer expresses horror at sex outside of marriage.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

She hath her desires, and after counterfeiteth as though she were an honest woman.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

she eateth . . . mouth--that is, she hides the evidences of her shame and professes innocence.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(20) Such is the way of an adulterous woman.—As there is no proof of her guilt, she flatly denies it.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

20. The “four things” of the two preceding verses find their moral in this verse. So lightly does the abandoned woman think of the consequences of her sin; so does it pass away when committed and leave no mark behind. It is but to eat and wipe the lips, and all trace of the food is gone.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Such is the way of an adulterous woman,.... It is equally unknown as the way of a man with a maid; it is difficult to detect her, she takes so much care and caution, and uses so many artful methods to conceal her wickedness from her husband; though she lives in adultery, it is in a most private manner, and carried on so secretly and artfully that she is not easily discovered;

she eateth, and wipeth her mouth; like one that eats what he should not, wipes his mouth that it might not be known or suspected he had ate anything; so such an adulteress commits the sin of adultery; and when she has done looks as grave and demure, and carries it so to her husband and all her friends, as if she was the chastest person upon earth. The allusion may be to harlots, who after an impure congress used to wash themselves (a), and had servants to wait upon them and serve them with water, called from hence "aquarioli" (b);

and saith, I have done no wickedness; she says by her behaviour, by her demure looks; and if suspected and challenged with it utterly denies it. This is an emblem of the antichristian whore of Rome, who, though the mother of harlots, and abominations of the earth; though guilty of the foulest adultery, that is, the grossest idolatry, yet pretends to be the pure and chaste spouse of Christ; and, under the guise of purity and holiness, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness, seduces the minds of many; see Rev 17:1.

(a) "Dedecus hoc sumpta dissimulavit aqua", Ovid. Amor. l. 3. Eleg. 6. in fine. (b) Tertull. Apolog. c. 43. Vid. Turnebi Adversar. l. 14. c. 12.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Such, so secret and undiscernible,

is the way of an adulterous woman; of her who, though she be called and accounted a maid yet in truth is an adulteress: not a common strumpet, for of such the following words are not true, but one that secretly lives in the sin of adultery or fornication.

She eateth, to wit, the bread of deceit in secret, by which is understood the act of filthiness, Pro 9:17; 20:17, which such persons do as greedily desire, and as delightfully feed upon, as hungry persons do upon bread. Thus chastely doth the Holy Ghost express the most filthy actions, to teach us to avoid all immodest and obscene speeches as well as actions.

Wipeth her mouth, as a child doth when it hath eaten some forbidden food, and would not be discovered.

Saith, I have done no wickedness; denies the fact, and avoweth her innoceney.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

20. Such — כן, (ken,) so, a particle of comparison establishing a connexion with the preceding, and expressing the similitude between the way of an adulteress and the things just mentioned. “Just as incomprehensible in a moral view is the violation of the sacredness of marital rights by the adulteress, and her hardened indifference to the guilt of the crime.” — Conant.

She eateth, and wipeth — Indulges her appetite, and removes all indication of guilt.

And saith — By her manner, “I am innocent.” One moral of the passage may be a caution against implicit confidence in external or first appearances.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This verse is a kind of gloss or illustration of the last thought of the preceding verse, and seems not to have formed an original part of the numerical proverb. It might well be placed in a parenthesis. Many commentators consider it to be an interpolation. Such is the way of an adulterous woman. What Agur had said of a man above, he now applies to the practised adulteress, whose sin cannot be traced. She eateth. This is an euphemism for the sin which she commits, "Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant". (Pro_9:17; comp. Pro_5:15) And wipeth her mouth, as if to leave no trace of her illicit repast. And saith, I have done no wickedness. As she has sinned in secret, and there is no outward proof of her guilt, she boldly denies it. Septuagint, "Such is the way of an adulterous woman, who, when she has committed the act, having washed herself, says she has done nothing amiss." She forgets him who seeth in secret, and is quite content to escape detection at man"s eyes, and to assume the character of a virtuous wife, which popular report assigns to her.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Such is - So secret and undiscernible. Eateth - The bread of deceit in secret.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

she eats and she wipes her mouth

This seems to be both a euphemism and a metaphor for committing adultery and then taking a bath. (See: Euphemism and Metaphor)

translationWords

adultery

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

and [she] wipes Heb. ומחתה she turns over her lower orifice, as it is written (II Kings 21:13): “as one wipes (ימחה) a dish, he wipes (מחה) and turns it upside down.”

she eats Scripture speaks euphemistically.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.