נָאַף

Exodus 20:14 תִּֿנְאָֽ֑ף׃ ס you must commit adultery

You shall not commit adultery.

Here: Simple active form, 'you (one man) will commit adultery', in the form Hebrew uses for ongoing or future action. After lō' it means 'you shall never commit adultery'. The verb names one specific act: sex between a man and a woman who is married or engaged to another man. One word in Hebrew does what English needs 'commit adultery' to do. It has no object and no qualification, so the ban stands without exceptions.

Leviticus 20:10 יִנְאַף֙ יִנְאַ֖ף הַנֹּאֵ֖ף וְהַנֹּאָֽפֶת׃ he will commit adultery, the adulterer, and the adulteress

If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

Here: This is the technical verb for sex with a woman who is married (or formally betrothed) to someone else. The tense describes a possible case, 'commits / should commit', and is not a prediction.

Deuteronomy 5:18 תִּֿנְאָֽ֑ף׃ ס you must commit adultery

You shall not commit adultery.

Here: The verb is a 2nd person masculine singular form of the kind used for ongoing or future action: 'you will (not) commit adultery'. With lōʾ it works as an absolute, standing law. In Israel's law the verb meant sexual intercourse involving a woman who was married or betrothed to another man. What made the act adultery was her marital status, not the man's. The 'you' addresses each Israelite and also all Israel as one person standing before God.

Job 24:15 נֹאֵ֨ף׀ an adulterer

The eye of the adulterer watches for twilight. Thinking, ‘No eye will see me,’ he covers his face.

Psalm 50:18 מְנָאֲפִ֣ים adulterers

When you see a thief, you befriend him, and throw in your lot with adulterers.

Here: "Men who commit adultery" (an intensive participle describing ongoing practice). The verb is the one in the commandment "You shall not commit adultery" (lōʾ tinʾāp̄).

Proverbs 6:32 נֹאֵ֣ף [one who] commits adultery

He who commits adultery lacks judgment; whoever does so destroys himself.

Here: A participle: 'the adulterer', the one who does this. In Israelite usage the word means sex with a woman who is married or betrothed to another man. Here it is aimed at the young man who goes to 'his neighbor's wife' (v. 29).

Proverbs 30:20 מְנָ֫אָ֥פֶת adulterous

This is the way of an adulteress: She eats and wipes her mouth and says, ‘I have done nothing wrong.’

Isaiah 57:3 מְנָאֵ֖ף adulterous

“But come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!

Here: A masculine singular participle in the intensive form, meaning a habitual adulterer. Their 'father' is a man who broke into another man's marriage, so their own birth is illegitimate.

Jeremiah 3:8 נִֽאֲפָה֙ she committed adultery

She saw that because faithless Israel had committed adultery, I gave her a certificate of divorce and sent her away. Yet that unfaithful sister Judah had no fear and prostituted herself as well.

Here: The legal word for adultery, meaning breaking an existing marriage. Here it stands for Israel's worship of other gods (v. 9: "adultery with stone and tree").

Jeremiah 3:9 וַתִּנְאַ֥ף and she committed adultery

Indifferent to her own infidelity, Israel had defiled the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

Jeremiah 5:7 וַיִּנְאָ֔פוּ and they committed adultery

“Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes.

Here: 'And they committed adultery.' The response to being fed was betrayal. It means literal adultery (v. 8 describes men lusting after neighbours' wives) and also covenant unfaithfulness to God (Jer 3:8–9).

Jeremiah 7:9 וְֽנָאֹ֔ף and will you commit adultery?

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

Here: Sex that violates a marriage, defined in Israelite law by the woman being married or betrothed. In Jeremiah it also serves as a picture of Israel's unfaithfulness to God (3:8–9), though the literal act is meant here.

Jeremiah 9:2 מְנָ֣אֲפִ֔ים [are] adulterers

If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.

Here: 'Adulterers', from a verb form that suggests habitual or intense adultery. In Jeremiah it means literal sexual adultery (5:7–8; 7:9; 23:10, 14; 29:23) and also, by the marriage picture, Judah's betrayal of the LORD through other gods (3:8–9). Both meanings are probably in view here.

Jeremiah 23:10 מְנָֽאֲפִים֙ adulterers

For the land is full of adulterers—because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up—their course is evil and their power is misused.

Here: Plural participle of the intensive verb stem, "people who commit adultery." Placed first for emphasis. In Jeremiah it means real sexual betrayal (5:7–8; 23:14; 29:23), and it also carries the prophet's picture of Judah betraying its covenant 'husband' YHWH (3:8–9).

Jeremiah 23:14 נָא֞וֹף they have committed adultery

And among the prophets of Jerusalem I have seen a horrible thing: They commit adultery and walk in lies. They strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns his back on wickedness. They are all like Sodom to Me; the people of Jerusalem are like Gomorrah.”

Here: The bare verb-noun form, used here like an entry on a charge sheet: 'adultery-committing'. It means sex with another man's wife, and it may also carry Jeremiah's usual picture of unfaithfulness to God.

Jeremiah 29:23 וַיְנַֽאֲפוּ֙ and they committed adultery

For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”

Here: A verb form that often points to repeated or energetic action, so a pattern of adultery rather than one lapse. In Hebrew law adultery meant sex with another man's wife or betrothed.

Ezekiel 16:32 הַמְּנָאָ֑פֶת <the> adulterous

You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband!

Ezekiel 16:38 נֹאֲפ֔וֹת adulteresses

And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy.

Here: "Adulteresses": women who commit adultery. In Israelite law this meant a married or betrothed woman who had relations with a man who was not her husband. Here it names Jerusalem's whole career as told in the chapter: other gods, and political alliances with Egypt, Assyria and Babylon (vv.15–34).

Ezekiel 23:37 נִאֵ֗פוּ נִאֵ֑פוּ they have committed adultery

For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.

Here: "They have committed adultery." The verb is in an intensive form, and the action is presented as finished. This is the first of two capital charges. The subjects are the two sisters, Oholah (Samaria) and Oholibah (Jerusalem), and they are wives of YHWH.

Ezekiel 23:45 נֹֽאֲפ֔וֹת נֹֽאֲפֹת֙ adulteresses, [are] adulteresses

But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.

Hosea 3:1 וּמְנָאָ֑פֶת and [who] commits adultery

Then the LORD said to me, “Go show love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to idols.”

Here: “And an adulteress”, more exactly “and one committing adultery”. The participle describes something ongoing. This is the specific word for breaking a marriage, sharper than the general word for sexual unfaithfulness (zānāh) used in chapter 1.

Hosea 4:2 וְנָאֹ֑ף and committing adultery

Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

Here: 'And committing adultery.' The verb of 'You shall not commit adultery'. In Hosea, a book built around a broken marriage, it means real sexual betrayal, and it also echoes Israel's unfaithfulness to its God (4:13–14). The Hebrew accent here marks the end of the first half of the verse.

Hosea 4:13 תְּנָאַֽפְנָה׃ they commit adultery

They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is pleasant. And so your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

Here: They break a marriage bond. It is the right word for women who are already married, just as the earlier verb suits the unmarried, and it closes the verse on the most serious offence against a household.

Hosea 4:14 תְנָאַ֔פְנָה they commit adultery

I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

Hosea 7:4 מְנָ֣אֲפִ֔ים [are] adulterers

They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

Malachi 3:5 וּבַמְנָ֣אֲפִ֔ים and on the adulterers

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Here: Those who commit adultery, in Israelite law sex with another man's wife or betrothed. It echoes the Ten Commandments and Malachi's charge of faithlessness in marriage (2:14–16).