Proverbs 6:25
in Proverbs 6Do not lust in your heart for her beauty or let her captivate you with her eyes.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Lust not after her beauty in thy heart; Neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
KJV
Lust not after her beauty in thine heart; neither let her take thee with her eyelids.
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This verse in Proverbs 6
Commentary
7 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
Eyelids - Possibly pointing to the Eastern custom of painting the eyes on the outside with kohl so as to give brightness and languishing expression.
This site's exposition
from the flattery of the tongue of a strange woman
on Proverbs 6:24-26
The lamp and light of the previous verses are given a specific purpose, to keep the son from the evil woman and the flattery of her tongue, tying the surrounding unit together. Lust not after her beauty in thine heart locates the danger at the level of desire rather than only action, since the eyelids are named as a weapon before any deed is done. The two costs are contrasted sharply, reduced to a piece of bread on one side and hunted for the precious life on the other, a loss of dignity set against a loss that reaches the soul itself.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
Do not be captured by her glances. This applies to the adulteress. But even if heretics seem to live and act well, be careful not to be deceived by their doctrines.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Her looks are arrows and fiery darts; they wound, they kill, in another sense than what lovers mean; they call it a pleasing captivity, but it is a destroying one, it is worse than Egyptian slavery." 2. Divers arguments Solomon here urges to enforce this caution against the sin of whoredom.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes
Lust not after her beauty in thine heart,....
We are here dissuaded from sin very much by arguments borrowed from our secular interests, for it is not only represented as damning in the other world, but as impoverishing in this.
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
Neither let her take thee with her eye-lids - It is a very general custom in the East to paint the eye-lids. I have many Asiatic drawings in which this is expressed. They have a method of polishing the eyes with a preparation of antimony, so that they appear with an indescribable lustre; or, as one who mentions the fact from observation, “Their eyes appear to be swimming in bliss.”
The words behind it
7 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| אַל־ | ʾal- | may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תַּחְמֹ֣ד | tachmod | you desire | H2530 → | 25 times |
| יָ֭פְיָהּ | yafeyah | beauty her | H3308 → | |
| בִּלְבָבֶ֑ךָ | bilvavekha | in heart your | H3824 → | |
| וְאַל־ | veal- | and may not | H408 → | 724 times |
| תִּ֝קָּֽחֲךָ֗ | tikachakha | she capture you | H3947 → | 966 times |
| בְּעַפְעַפֶּֽיהָ׃ | beafapeiha | with eyelids her | H6079 → | 10 times |
אַל־may not
ʾal-H408 →724 times
תַּחְמֹ֣דyou desire
tachmodH2530 →25 times
יָ֭פְיָהּbeauty her
yafeyahH3308 →
בִּלְבָבֶ֑ךָin heart your
bilvavekhaH3824 →
וְאַל־and may not
veal-H408 →724 times
תִּ֝קָּֽחֲךָ֗she capture you
tikachakhaH3947 →966 times
בְּעַפְעַפֶּֽיהָ׃with eyelids her
beafapeihaH6079 →10 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Matthew 5:28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
it leads to
- 1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life—is not from the Father but from the world.
- James 1:14–15
But each one is tempted when by his own evil desires he is lured away and enticed.
- Exodus 20:17
You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his manservant or maidservant, or his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
- 2 Samuel 11:2
One evening David got up from his bed and strolled around on the roof of the palace. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing—a very beautiful woman.
- Job 31:1
“I have made a covenant with my eyes. How then could I gaze with desire at a virgin?
- 1 John 2:16
Through
Isaiah 3:16The LORD also says: “Because the daughters of Zion are haughty—walking with heads held high and wanton eyes, prancing and skipping as they go, jingling the bracelets on their ankles—
it leads to
- Isaiah 32:9–11
Stand up, you complacent women; listen to me. Give ear to my word, you overconfident daughters.
- Ezekiel 16:49–50
Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy.
- Isaiah 32:9–11
Through
2 Kings 9:30Now when Jehu arrived in Jezreel, Jezebel heard of it. So she painted her eyes, adorned her head, and looked down from a window.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 4:30
And you, O devastated one, what will you do, though you dress yourself in scarlet, though you adorn yourself with gold jewelry, though you enlarge your eyes with paint? You adorn yourself in vain;…
- Jeremiah 4:30
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.