Bible Verses About Adultery: Penalties for

Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet; he will pray for you and you will live. But if you do not restore her, be aware that you will surely die—you and all who belong to you.”

So Abimelech warned all the people, saying, “Whoever harms this man or his wife will surely be put to death.”

About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!”

If a man seduces a virgin who is not pledged in marriage and sleeps with her, he must pay the full dowry for her to be his wife.

If her father absolutely refuses to give her to him, the man still must pay an amount comparable to the bridal price of a virgin.

If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed.

The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting as his guilt offering to the LORD.

The priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the LORD with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven the sin he has committed.

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.

If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.

If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.

Then the LORD said to Moses,

“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him

by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act),

and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself—

then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity.

The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD.

Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water.

After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse.

And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse.

But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’—

and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell.

May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’

And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water.