“For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and would root out all mine increase.”
For it would be a fire that consumes to Abaddon and would root out all my increase, describing adultery using the metaphor of consuming fire that reaches destruction itself, suggesting that sexual transgression destroys everything—happiness, property, even existence. The consuming fire suggests overwhelming destruction. Reaching to Abaddon suggests extending even to ultimate destruction. The rooting out of all increase suggests comprehensive loss. The verse emphasizes the totality of destruction adultery produces.
Church Fathers on Job 31:12
For this is an heinous crime; and the chiefest iniquity. For it is a fire that consumeth to destruction, and that rooteth out all increase. There is this difference between ‘sin’ and ‘crime,’ that all crime is sin, but not all sin is crime. And in this life there are numbers without crime, but no one can be without sins. And hence the holy preacher, when he was describing a man worthy of the grace of the priesthood, never said, ‘if any be without sin,’ but if any be without…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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