“So is he who goes in to his neighbor’s wife”: This line compares the adulterer to the person who gets burned in verses 27-28. There should be a clear connection between verse 29 and the two verses before it. If you have used rhetorical questions in those verses, for example, then verse 29 may begin “Neither can you sleep with someone else’s wife. . ..” “Goes in to” is an indirect way of saying “has sexual relations with.” See Good News Translation “sleep with.” For “neighbor” see 3.28-29. “Neighbor’s wife” can be translated in this verse by “another man’s wife” or “someone else’s wife.”

“None who touches her will go unpunished”: “Touches”, like “goes in to” in the first line, is an indirect way of referring to sexual contact. It is not to be taken as simply touching. In some languages, however, “to touch a woman” carries the sense of having relations with her, and so the literal translation will carry the correct sense. “Go unpunished” is literally “will not be innocent,” which means “will be guilty” and therefore “will be punished.” It is not certain whether the punishment will come as the result of the law taking action or whether, as in verses 34-35, it is the angry husband who takes revenge on the adulterer. We may restate this line positively, for example, “Anyone who sleeps with her will certainly be punished.”

Quoted with permission from Reyburn, William D. and Fry, Euan McG. A Handbook on Proverbs. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2000. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .