Job 31:11 - Exposition

For this is an heinous crime . The crime of adultery subverts the family relation, on which it has pleased God to erect the entire fabric of human society. Hence, in the Jewish Law, adultery was made a capital offence (Le Job 20:10 ; Deuteronomy 22:22 ), both in the woman and in the man. Among other nations the adulteress was commonly punished with death, but the adulterer escaped scot-free. In modern communities adultery is mostly regarded, not as a crime, but as a civil wrong, on account of which an action lies against the adulterer. It is an iniquity to be punished by the judges ; literally, it is an iniquity of judges ; i.e. one of which judges take cognizance.