Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 23:32
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
It hurts the body in many respects, impairs the rigour of the mind, wastes the estate and reputation, wounds the conscience, and, without repentance, will destroy the soul.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
32. The acute miseries resultingfrom drunkenness contrasted with the temptations.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
At the last it biteth like a serpent,…. Though it goes down sweetly, yet it leaves a sting behind it, intemperately drank; a nausea in the stomach, a stink in the breath, pains and giddiness in the head, weakness in the eyes, trembling in the members of the body, palsy, gout, and other distempers, very painful and grievous to be bore; and, what is worse, if the conscience is awakened, sharp and cutting reflections there; and, without true repentance, torments intolerable in the world to come;
and stingeth like an adder; or “spreads” u, or separates and scatters; that is, its poison. So the Vulgate Latin version, “diffuseth poisons as a basilisk”, or “cockatrice”; the Targum and Syriac version,
“as a serpent which flies;”
it signifies the same as before.
u “jecur diffindet”, Schultens.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
32. At the last Literally, at its end; its final ruinous influence.
Stingeth Punctures, wounds.
Like an adder A basilisk, a very venomous serpent. Isa 11:8. “A cockatrice.” Geneva Bible.
v. 32. At the last it biteth like a serpent, Pro 23:32. At the last it biteth, &c. “Remember that the pleasure will be attended at last with intolerable pains when it works like so much poison in thy veins, and casts thee into troubles as keen, and diseases as difficult to cure, as the biting of a serpent, or the stinging of a basilisk;” (for so the last word should be rendered.) See Bishop Patrick. Mr. Prior has thus finely expressed the ill effects of drunkenness in his poem intitled Solomon:
Unhappy man! whom sorrow thus and rage To diff’rent ills alternately engage; Who drinks, alas! but to forget; nor sees That melancholy, sloth, severe disease, Mem’ry confus’d, and interrupted thought, Death’s harbingers, lie latent in the draught: And in the flow’rs that wreath the sparkling bowl, Full adders hiss, and pois’nous serpents roll.
Pro 23:32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Ver. 32. At the last it biteth like a serpent. ] Lo, such is the guilt of sin, such the end and effect of drunkenness – torments here, and tortures in hell.
At: Pro 5:11, Isa 28:3, Isa 28:7, Isa 28:8, Jer 5:31, Exo 7:5, Exo 7:6, Exo 7:12, Luk 16:25, Luk 16:26, Rom 6:21
biteth: Ecc 10:8, Jer 8:17, Amo 5:19, Amo 9:3
an adder: or, a cockatrice, Isa 59:5
Reciprocal: Gen 9:21 – and was Psa 140:3 – like a serpent Pro 9:17 – Stolen Isa 5:11 – inflame
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge