C. F. Keil and Franz Delitzsch on Proverbs 6:27-29

Pro 6:27-29

The moral necessity of ruinous consequences which the sin of adultery draws after it, is illustrated by examples of natural cause and effect necessarily connected: 27 Can one take fire in his bosom      And his clothes not be burned? 28 Or can any one walk over burning coals      And his feet not be burned? 29 So he that goeth to his neighbour’s wife,      No one remains unpunished that toucheth her.

We would say: Can any one, without being, etc.; the former is the Semitic “extended (paratactic)The παρατακτικὸς χρόνος denotes the imperfect tense, because it is still extended to the future. construction.” The first אישׁ has the conjunctive Shalsheleth. חתה signifies to seize and draw forth a brand or coal with the fire-tongs or shovel (מחתּה, the instrument for this); cf. Arab. khât, according to Lane, “he seized or snatched away a thing;” the form יחתּה is Kal, as יחנה (vid., Köhler, De Tetragammate, 1867, p. 10). חיק (properly indentation) is here not the lap, but, as Isa 40:11, the bosom.