Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Proverbs 23:29
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
29. woe sorrow ] Lit. oh! alas!
babbling ] Rather, contentions, as the same Heb. word is rendered in Pro 18:19; the quarrelsomeness of the man in drink, leading to pugnacity, and so to “wounds without a cause.”
redness ] Comp. Gen 49:12, where however the word is used of the effect of wine on the eyes in a good sense. The LXX. have here (bloodshot) ; suffusio oculorum, Vulg. Some however render the word darkness here (R.V. marg.), and dark or dark-flashing (in contrast to the white teeth) in Genesis.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Pro 23:29-35
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
The woes of the drunkard
The ugly sketch given here should be enough to warn all young people against tampering with a vice which may make it a portrait of them. The questions, six in number, fall into three pairs, which deal respectively with the mans feelings of discomfort, his relations with others, and his physical sufferings. Who is the original of this foul picture of degradation and misery? The answer is keenly sarcastic. It is the man who lingers long over the wine. The loss of the power of self-control is indicated in the term. If we would only realise the afterwards of any vice, we should turn from it with dread. The misfortune is, that we do not look an inch beyond the present pleasure. Note three degrading effects of drunkenness.
1. The effect in deceiving the senses and lowering the moral tone.
2. The common sense, the instinct of self-preservation, ordinary prudence, and the sense of the fitness of things, are suspended.
3. The last piece of degradation is given, for greater liveliness of impression, in the form of the drunkards own soliloquy. He feels himself all over as he begins to rouse from his tipsy sleep, and pities himself that he has been so badly handled. He is waking, but he is not yet himself. As he staggers back into consciousness, the first thing that he thinks of is a renewal of his debauch. The awful tyranny of the evil habit, which has become a diseased second nature, is only too well known. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Returning from evil ways
The first difficulty in the way of return for the intemperate, who have got on the wrong tack, is the force of moral gravitation. It is easier to go down than it is to go up. The next thing is the power of evil habit. If a man wants to return from evil practices, society repulses him. How may these obstacles be overcome?
1. Throw yourself on God.
2. Quit all your bad associations.
3. Seek Christian advice. If you have a Christian friend, go to him. (T. De Witt Talmage, D.D.)
Against intemperance
As implied in this passage this indicates the tendency of human nature.
1. The moral degradation of intemperance. It is the destruction of everything manly and noble in human nature.
2. The physical degradation. Corruption in the heart works out its marks upon the face and in the manners. A distinguished German authority has given the scientific degradation resulting upon the generations succeeding the victim of the drink habit.
3. The social degradation. Intemperance as an evil reaches the state. Nine-tenths of the crimes of society result from, or are abetted by, drink. This theme is a warning. Directly and indirectly, the appeal is made to all who come within the sound of its voice. (D. O. Mears.)
Drunkenness
I. The evils of drunkenness.
1. Sorrow (Pro 23:29). Drink has probably broken more hearts than any other thing. It is taken to drown sorrow, but, alas! it creates it.
2. Folly. Babbling–a profanation of the sacred gift of speech, and as such is to be avoided (1Ti 6:20).
3. Disease. Wounds. Look in at the hospitals. Read the medical reports.
4. Disfigurement. Redness cf the eyes.
5. Waste of time. Tarry long.
6. Dissatisfaction. Yet again (Pro 23:35). Drink creates an insatiable appetite for itself.
7. Insensibility. Felt it not (Pro 23:35). The nerves of the drunkard are benumbed, and natures monitors are impaired. Physical insensibility is followed by moral insensibility (Eph 4:19).
8. Uncleanness. Drink fires the passions, and gives the strange women (Pro 23:33) their best opportunities.
9. Exposure to danger (Pro 23:34).
II. The remedy for drunkenness (verse31). It is very simple. Abstain from strong drink–dont even look at it. Temptation sometimes enters through the eye. But beyond and above all look to Jesus for deliverance from this and every other form of evil. (H. Thorne.)
Pleasant vices dangerous
Gas is a great spoiler of the air; but it has the merit of giving timely warning of the danger by the horrible smell which accompanies its escape. This smell is perceptible when there is only one part in a thousand parts of air; becomes very offensive when the proportion Isa 1:1-31/750 or 1/500, and is almost insupportable as the proportion increases. If the gas has escaped from a crack in the pipes, and been allowed to mingle with the air in which a free circulation by ventilation is possible, so that the proportion of gas amounts to 1/11, it explodes on the introduction of a candle. But the reason why this catastrophe so seldom occurs is because the smell of gas is so utterly offensive that the evil demands and receives proper attention long before it reaches danger point. This fact illustrates very well a great truth in the moral world, namely, that when evil is offensive in itself its danger to the community is slight. In exact ratio to the pleasantness of vice is the danger to be apprehended from it. (Scientific Illustrations.)
A temperance topic
1. The use of intoxicating drinks is financially unbusinesslike. It keeps men in poverty, and they keep their families is the deepest want.
2. It destroys self-respect.
3. It defiles the body.
4. It destroys life.
5. It enfeebles the mind.
6. It breaks down the will.
7. It obliterates heart and conscience.
8. It destroys souls. Let us use our every influence to correct this evil. (G. B. F. Hallcock.)
On the sin of drunkenness
I. The causes which lead to it.
1. Example. Seeing others in this state, and imitating them without being aware of the results which will follow.
2. Evil associations. We cannot be too careful in selecting our associates.
3. Afflictions of a peculiar kind, especially mental, and those produced by disappointment.
4. The ease with which liquor is procured.
II. Some of the evils attendant upon drunkenness.
1. Babbling. Owing to temporary deprivation of the use of reason.
2. Contentions. The man acts like a madman.
3. Wounds without cause.
4. Redness of eyes.
III. The consequences resulting from this sin. Woe and sorrow.
1. From the consumption of his property.
2. From the loss of his reputation.
3. From the decay of his health.
4. From the injury done to his family.
5. From the loss of his immortal soul.
IV. The duty of avoiding the sin of drunkenness. Think not that it will do you good, but reflect on the consequences to which it leads, so abominable in the sight of God, so injurious to yourselves and those around you, and so hateful in the estimation of all those who truly reflect. (E. Miller, M.A.)
Drunkenness
The Bible considers intemperance in all its phases, and shows that, with all other sins, it springs from a sinfulness which is common to mankind, and shows that the true remedy for it, as for all sins, lies in the deliverance Divinely provided for the sinfulness which is their root.
I. The drunkards condition is described. Woes and sorrows, strifes and anxieties, wounds and diseases, deadened perceptions and a destroyed will, mingle in this awful picture. Here is disclosed a general wreck of manhood.
1. Physical evils. Alcohol vitiates the blood and fills it with poisonous humour. The changes produce gross and enfeebled bodies, diseases of the heart, lungs, and other organs, and a constant waste of physical powers.
2. Mental evils. Alcohol directly affects the brain. It creates an unnatural brilliancy of intellect. But this brief advantage is purchased at the cost of the mind itself. Other effects on the mind seriously deteriorate a mans progeny. Drink destroys not only the mind of the drunkard, but also the mind of his offspring.
3. Moral and spiritual evils. Drunkenness inflames the passions. It leads to contentions. It is the great cause of crime. It destroys self-control and thus overthrows the citadel of manhood.
II. The steps by which men become drunkards. Alcohol is first taken in its simplest, as wine, beer, cider. At first it is taken only occasionally, and at the invitation of others. Literature lends its voice to enticing temptations. Those who allow themselves to acquire the habit of drinking make that which they hate a part of themselves.
III. The way to avoid being a drunkard. Let alcohol alone. Keep in view that the woes of drink come from an indulgence that was moderate in the beginning. No temptation to drink is more dangerous than that which makes it a sign of good-fellowship. Total abstinence is the only safe ground to stand upon. But the Christian will do more than hold himself in safety. The Christian must give all the weight of his influence, by example, word, and action, as a Christian, a neighbour, and a citizen, against this evil. (Monday Club Sermons.)
Against intemperance
I. The delusiveness of this sin. Call no pleasure pleasurable until you have asked what the cost is to be.
II. The traits of disposition resulting from wine-drinking.
1. The drunkard is contentious.
2. He is a discontented man.
3. He loses his mind.
4. He is a reckless man.
III. The results of drinking are in part suggested.
1. The speech of the drunkard is bad.
2. The body is harmed by drink.
3. The drunkard tends to become possessed of all evil desires.
IV. This way of living becomes permanent. In its origin drunkenness is but an episode; in its conclusion it is a character. What a man does once he tends to do again.
1. This permanence is shown in the deliberateness of the drunkards full-grown folly.
2. And so the habit fastens itself more and more firmly upon him, until at last, even when he is grovelling in the lowest depths, he still calls ever for more of that which has brought him there. The more a man drinks, the more he does not want to stop. (D. J. Burrell.)
The woes of the drunkard
Is it not Shakespeare himself who says, by the mouth of the disgraced and ruined Cassio, O thou invisible spirit of wine, if thou hast no name to be known by, let us call thee Devil? What does drink cost in human misery? Ah, how can I tell you? Can I count the leaves of the forest, or the sands upon the shore? And the sounds of this misery are like the sighing of the leaves of illimitable forests, and the plashing on the shores of unfathomable seas. For it is the horrible fact that the drink which we, as a nation, are drinking, not from the necessities of thirst, but from the mere luxuries of appetite–drink often adulterated with the vilest and most maddening ingredients–yes, this rubied and Circean cup which we sip, and smile while it is converting thousands of our brethren into swine–this subtle, serpentine, insidious thing which we cherish in our bosoms, and laugh and play with its brightness, while it is stinging thousands of our brothers into raging madness–costs us millions of money, myriads of criminals, thousands of paupers, thousands of ruined women, hundreds and thousands of men and women goaded by misery, into suicide and madness, with every blossom in what might have been the garland of their lives blighted as by a furys breath. (Dean Farrar.)
Safety imperceptibly passed by the drinker
Who can detect the line of demarcation that separates the colours of the rainbow, where the yellow tint blends into the deep orange colour, and that deep orange colour into the deeper red! What mind, however disciplined or practised, can tell the line of demarcation that shades off the varying sentiments of men, and separates the schools of theological opinion? And if the human eye, aided by the most powerful lenses, cannot discern any line of demarcation in the tints of the rainbow, and the skilled theologian cannot pronounce as to where or what is the dividing line between one school of theology and another, how can we expect the dulled, darkened, blunted brain of the drinker to be able to detect that imperceptible line in his progress, at one side of which is safety, and beyond it danger? Or, suppose he could, would it be ethically right for a man to push forward designedly to the furthest verge where he supposed that moral innocence merged into guilt and sin? The rainbow tints may indeed thus meet and blend; phases of thought and opinion may shade off into each other; but it surely can never be that moral innocence and moral guilt could ever stand in such close proximity together as that the one should merge into the other. (R. Maguire.)
The warning against intemperance
We should mind this warning against the serpent of intemperance, because–
I. Its sting is a costly sting.
II. Its sting is an injurious sting.
III. Its sting is a disgraceful sting. (R. Newton, D.D.)
The drink serpent
Drink is like the serpent–
I. Because it is poisonous. Alcohol is primarily a brain-poison, but there is not a tissue nor an organ of the body which it does not injure.
II. Because it is subtle (Gen 3:1). As a rule men glide into drunkenness unconsciously to themselves. Probably the drunkard is the last person to know that he has become such.
III. Because it is like the devil. In the Scriptures the serpent is the symbol of Satan. Drink, like the devil, leads men into all kinds of sin. The connection of drink with unchastity is set forth in this passage. (G. A. Bennetts, B.A.)
Description of drunkenness
An inferior master in the art of moral painting gives us a just picture of drunkenness in these words. Drunkenness is a distemper of the head, a subversion of the senses, a tempest of the tongue, a storm in the body, the shipwreck of virtue, the loss of time, a wilful madness, a pleasant devil, a sugared poison, a sweet sin, which he that has, has not himself, and he that commits it, doth not only commit sin, but is himself altogether sin. (George Lawson, D.D.)
The drunkards picture
1. His sensual indulgence.
2. His offensive garrulousness.
3. His bloodshot face. The habits of the man come to be marked by their effects upon his looks.
4. His wretched condition.
5. His easy temptability. He is ripe for the crimes of adultery, falsehood, blasphemy, and other enormities.
6. His reckless stupidity.
7. His unconquerable thirst. However bitter his reflections upon his awaking, and his remorse, his thirst remains unquenched. (D. Thomas, D.D.)
Woes of intemperance
The Assyrians had a fancy that, if a demon saw his own face in a mirror, he could not bear the ugly sight, and would vanish. Unfortunately, vicious men are not so easily frightened, for many a drunkard knows perfectly what a degraded creature he has made himself, and yet is not restrained. But the photograph may deter others from beginning so suicidal a course. The appeal to consequences may not be the highest, but it is legitimate, and ought to be powerful with all rational beings. The consequences here appealed to are exclusively personal ones, there being no reference to the drunkards miserable homes, to wrecked family blessings, nor even to blasted prospects, and the havoc wrought by drink in pauperising and bringing to rags. What it does to the man himself in body and soul is the portrait painters theme here. The torrent of questions with which he begins brings out the mental discomfort and bodily mischief consequent on intoxication. The two questions in verse 29B repeat the substance of the three in A. Complaining seems to include woe and sorrow, and wounds without cause are the natural results of the contentions equally without cause. According to the best and most recent authorities, the bodily symptom here noticed is dulness, not redness, of eyes, the glazed, unperceiving stare so sadly well known as a sign of intoxication. There are far more grave physical consequences of the habit than that–shattered nerves, shaking hands, knotted livers–but the painter here is thinking rather of the act than of the habit. His answer to his questions comes with emphasis, and has a dash of sad irony in it. What an epitaph for a man: He was a connoisseur in wines; he did not know much about science or history or philosophy or theology or art or commerce or morality, but he was a perfect master at blending whisky! A solemn warning follows the etching of the drunkard, which is bitten in on the plate with acid. The wine appeals to the sense of sight, as it gleams in golden cup or crystal goblet, and it appeals also to the sense of taste as it goeth down smoothly. But it is not done with when it is swallowed, and, like all delights of sense, it has an afterwards which is not delightful. Violent delights have violent ends. In Pro 23:33 we see him in the height of his excitement; in Pro 23:34, in the stupor that follows; in Pro 23:35, in his waking. The first stage is marked by hallucinations and a torrent of vile speech. Thine eyes shall behold strange things, by which are meant the absurd delusions of the drunkard. Imagination is stimulated, and the senses befooled, by the fumes; the man reels about in a world of his own creating, which has nothing corresponding to it in reality. There is a still more terrible meaning possible to this part of the picture, though probably not the one intended–namely, the frightful visions accompanying delirium tremens, which dog the drunkards steps, and drive him into paroxysms of terror. Further, his loss of self-control is signalised by the loose speech in which the rank heart pours itself out in perverse things. There is a strange and awful connection between intoxication and foul words from the depths of the evil treasure of the heart. The second stage is that of collapse and stupor. The excitement, of course, ends in that, and the drunkard flings himself down anywhere, utterly careless of danger, and utterly unconscious of his surroundings. He is like a man that lieth down in the midst of the sea, neither a comfortable nor a safe bed, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast, where there is neither room to lie, nor security as the ship rolls, and the uneasy couch rolls still more. He sleeps out his heavy slumbers, and, when he does, he discovers for the first time the bruises and wounds which he has received. But these do not curb the tyrannous appetite which brought them on him. Undeterred by them, he wishes for the complete return of sober consciousness, only that he may renew his debauch. Christs solemn saying, Whoso committeth sin is the slave of sin, has no more tragical exemplification than in the miserable drunkard, who can no more resist the craving for drink than he can stop Niagara. (A. Maclaren, D.D.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 29. Who hath wo?] I believe Solomon refers here to the natural effects of drunkenness. And perhaps oi, which we translate wo, and aboi, which we translate sorrow, are mere natural sounds or vociferations that take place among drunken men, either from illness, or the nauseating effects of too much liquor. As to contentions among such; babblings on a variety of subjects, which they neither understand nor are fit to discuss; wounds, got by falling out about nothing; and red eyes, bloodshotten with excess of drink, or black and blue eyes with fighting; – these are such common and general effects of these compotations, as naturally to follow from them. So that they who tarry long at wine, and use mixed wine to make it more inebriating, (see Pr 9:2,) are the very persons who are most distinguished by the circumstances enumerated above. I need scarcely add, that by wine and mixed wine all inebriating liquors are to be understood.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
From the sin of lust he proceeds to that of drunkenness, which doth frequently accompany it.
Babbling the sin of much and impertinent talking; or, tumultuous noise or clamour, which is usual among drunkards. See Pro 20:1.
Without cause; upon every slight occasion, which men inflamed with wine are very apt to take.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29, 30. This picture is oftensadly realized now.
mixed wine(ComparePro 9:2; Isa 5:11).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Who hath woe?…. In this world and in the other, in body and soul; diseases of body, distress of mind, waste of substance, and all manner of evils and calamities; if any man has these, the drunkard has: from whoredom, the Holy Ghost proceeds to drunkenness, which generally go together; and dissuades from it, by observing the mischiefs that come by it;
who hath sorrow? through pains of body, with the headache, c. or through the agonies of the mind, and tortures of conscience, for sin committed or through poverty and want, so Aben Ezra derives the word from one that signifies “poor”; and so it may be rendered, “who hath poverty” n? the drunkard; see Pr 23:21;
who hath contentions? quarrels and lawsuits, which often come of drunken bouts;
who hath babbling? or “loquacity” o? which drunkards are subject to; much vain babbling, foolish talk, scurrilous language, scoffs, jeers, especially at religion and religious men; and sometimes such men are full of talk about religion itself, and make great pretensions to it, and the knowledge of it, in their cups, when out of them they think and talk nothing about it;
who hath wounds without cause? from words, oftentimes, drunkards go to blows upon the most frivolous accounts; fight with one another for no reason at all, and get themselves beaten and bruised for nothing;
who hath redness of eyes? the drunkard has, inflamed with wine or strong drink; which, drank frequently and to excess, is the cause of sore eyes, as well as of weakening the sight; or, however, leaves a redness there, and in other parts of the face, whereby those sons of Bacchus may be known: so it is observed p of Vitellius the emperor, that his face was commonly red through drunkenness. Hillerus renders it, “blackness of eyes”; such as comes from blows received; taking the word to be of the same signification with the Arabic word , which so signifies: this agrees with the preceding clause; and is countenanced by the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions.
n “cui egestas”, Montanus, Amama; “cuinam penuria”, Vatablus. o “loquacitas”, Pagninus, Junius Tremellius, Piscator, Mercerus so the Targum. p Sueton. Vita ejus, c. 17.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The author passes from the sin of uncleanness to that of drunkenness; they are nearly related, for drunkenness excites fleshly lust; and to wallow with delight in the mire of sensuality, a man, created in the image of God, must first brutalize himself by intoxication. The Mashal in the number of its lines passes beyond the limits of the distich, and becomes a Mashal ode.
29 Whose is woe? Whose is grief?
Whose are contentions, whose trouble, whose wounds without cause?
Whose dimness of eyes?
30 Theirs, who sit late at the wine,
Who turn in to taste mixed wine.
31 Look not on the wine as it sparkleth red,
As it showeth its gleam in the cup,
Glideth down with ease.
32 The end of it is that it biteth like a serpent,
And stingeth like a basilisk.
33 Thine eyes shall see strange things,
And thine heart shall speak perverse things;
34 And thou art as one lying in the heart of the sea,
And as one lying on the top of a mast.
35 “They have scourged me-it pained me not;
They have beaten me – I perceived it not.
When shall I have wakened from sleep?
Thus on I go, I return to it again.”
The repeated
(Note: We punctuate , for that is Ben Asher’s punctuation, while that of his opponent Ben Naphtali is . Vid., Thorath Emeth, p. 33.)
asks who then has to experience all that; the answer follows in Pro 23:30. With , the occurring only here accords; it is not a substantive from (whence ) after the form of , in the sense of egestas ; but, like the former [ ], an interjection of sorrow ( Venet. , ). Regarding ( Chethb ), vid., at Pro 6:14. signifies ( vid., at Pro 6:22) meditation and speech, here sorrowful thought and sorrowful complaint (1Sa 1:16; Psa 55:18; cf. , ), e.g., over the exhausted purse, the neglected work, the anticipated reproaches, the diminishing strength. In the connection (cf. Psa 35:19) the accus. adv. (French gratuitement ) represents the place of an adjective: strokes which one receives without being in the situation from necessity, or duty to expect them, strokes for nothing and in return for nothing (Fleischer), wounds for a long while (Oetinger). is the darkening (clouding) of the eyes, from , to be dim, closed, and transferred to the sensation of light: to be dark ( vid., at Gen 49:12; Psa 10:8); the copper-nose of the drunkard is not under consideration; the word does not refer to the reddening, but the dimming of the eyes, and of the power of vision. The answer, Pro 23:30, begins, in conformity with the form of the question, with (write , with Gaja to , according to Metheg-Setzung, 20, Michlol 46b): pain, and woe, and contention they have who tarry late at the wine (cf. Isa 5:11), who enter (viz., into the wine-house, Ecc 2:4, the house of revelry) “to search” mingled drink ( vid., at Pro 9:2; Isa 5:22). Hitzig: “they test the mixing, as to the relation of the wine to the water, whether it is correct.” But is like , Isa 5:22, meant in mockery: they are heroes, viz., heroes in drinking; they are searchers, such, namely, as seek to examine into the mixed wine, or also: thoroughly and carefully taste it (Fleischer).
The evil consequences of drunkenness are now registered. That one may not fall under this common sin, the poet, Pro 23:31, warns against the attraction which the wine presents to the sight and to the sense of taste: one must not permit himself to be caught as a prisoner by this enticement, but must maintain his freedom against it. , to make, i.e., to show oneself red, is almost equivalent to ; and more than this, it presents the wine as itself co-operating and active by its red play of colours (Fleischer). Regarding the antiptosis ( antiphonesis): Look not on the wine that is…, vid., at Gen 1:3; yet here, where means not merely “to see,” but “to look at,” the case is somewhat different. In 31b, one for the most part assumes that signifies the eye of the wine, i.e., the pearls which play on the surface of the wine (Fleischer). And, indeed, Hitzig’s translation, after Num 11:7: when it presents its appearance in the cup, does not commend itself, because it expresses too little. On the other hand, it is saying too much when Bttcher maintains that never denotes the mere appearance, but always the shining aspect of the object. But used of wine, appears to denote not merely aspect as such, but its gleam, glance; not its pearls, for which would be the word used, but shining glance, by which particularly the bright glance, as out of deep darkness, of the Syro-Palestinian wine is thought of, which is for the most part prepared from red (blue) grapes, and because very rich in sugar, is thick almost like syrup. Jerome translates well: ( cum splenduerit in vitro ) color ejus . But one need not think of a glass; Bttcher has rightly said that one might perceive the glittering appearance also in a metal or earthen vessel if one looked into it. The Chethb is an error of transcription; the Midrash makes the remark on this, that fits the wine merchant, and the wine drinker. From the pleasure of the eye, 31c passes over to the pleasures of the taste: (that, or, as it) goeth down smoothly (Luther); the expression is like Ecc 7:10. Instead of (like jary , of fluidity) there stands here , commonly used of pleasant going; and instead of with , the norm with of the manner; directness is here easiness, facility (Arab. jusr ); it goes as on a straight, even way unhindered and easily down the throat.
(Note: The English version is, “when it moveth itself aright,” which one has perceived in the phenomenon of the tears of the wine, or of the movement in the glass. Vid., Ausland, 1869, p. 72.)
Pro 23:32 shows how it issues with the wine, viz., with those who immoderately enjoy it. Is [its end] here the subject, as at Pro 5:4? We must in that case interpret and as attributives, as the Syr. and Targ. translate the latter, and Ewald both. The issue which it brings with it is like the serpent which bites, etc., and there is nothing syntactically opposed to this (cf. e.g., Psa 17:12); the future, in contradistinction to the participle, would not express properties, but intimations of facts. But the end of the wine is not like a serpent, but like the bite of a serpent. The wine itself, and independent of its consequences, is in and of itself like a serpent. In accordance with the matter, may be interpreted, with Hitzig (after Jerome, in novissimo ), as acc. adverb. = , Jer 17:11. But why did not the author more distinctly write this word ‘ ? The syntactic relation is like Pro 29:21: is after the manner of a substantival clause, the subject to that which follows as its virtual predicate: “its end is: like a serpent it biteth = this, that it biteth like a serpent.” Regarding , serpens regulus (after Schultens, from = (Arab.) saf’ , to breathe out glowing, scorching), vid., at Isa 7:8. The Hiph. Schultens here understands of the division of the liver, and Hitzig, after the lxx, Vulgate, and Venet., of squirting the poison; both after the Arab. farth. But , Syr. afres , also signifies, from the root-idea of dividing and splitting, to sting, poindre, pointer , as Rashi and Kimchi gloss, whence the Aram. , an ox-goad, with which the ancients connect (of the spur), the name for a rider, eques , and also a horse (cf. on the contrary, Fleischer in Levy, W.B. ii. 574); a serpent’s bite and a serpent’s sting (Lat. morsus, ictus , Varro: cum pepugerit colubra ) are connected together by the ancients.
(Note: However, we will not conceal it, that the post-bibl. Heb. does not know in the sense of to prick, sting (the Midrash explains the passage by , i.e., it cuts off life); and the Nestorian Knanishu of Superghan, whom I asked regarding aphrish , knew only of the meanings “to separate” and “to point out,” but not ”to sting.”)
The excited condition of the drunkard is now described. First, Pro 23:33 describes the activity of his imagination as excited to madness. It is untenable to interpret here with Rashi, Aben Ezra, and others, and to translate with Luther: “so shall thine eyes look after other women” ( circumspicient mulieres impudicas , Fleischer, for the meaning to perceive, to look about for something, to seek something with the eyes, referring to Gen 41:33). For acquires the meaning of mulieres impudicae only from its surrounding, but here the parallel (perverse things) directs to the neut. aliena (cf. Pro 15:28, ), but not merely in the sense of unreal things (Ralbag, Meri), but: strange, i.e., abnormal, thus bizarre, mad, dreadful things. An old Heb. parable compares the changing circumstances which wine produces with the manner of the lamb, the lion, the swine, the monkey; here juggles and phantoms of the imagination are meant, which in the view and fancy of the drunken man hunt one another like monkey capers. Moreover, the state of the drunken man is one that is separated from the reality of a life of sobriety and the safety of a life of moderation, 34a: thou act like one who lies in the heart of the sea. Thus to lie in the heart, i.e., the midst, of the sea as a ship goes therein, Pro 30:19, is impossible; there one must swim but swimming is not lying, and to thing on a situation like that of Jonah; Jon 1:5, one must think also of the ship; but does not necessarily mean “to sleep,” and, besides, the sleep of a passenger in the cabin on the high sea is of itself no dangerous matter. Rightly Hitzig: on the depth of the sea (cf. Jon 2:4) – the drunken man, or the man overcome by wine (Isa 28:7), is like one who has sunk down into the midst of the sea; and thus drowned, or in danger of being drowned, he is in a condition of intellectual confusion, which finally passes over into perfect unconsciousness, cut off from the true life which passes over him like one dead, and in this condition he has made a bed for himself, as denotes. With , stands in complete contrast: he is like one who lies on the top of the mast. , after the forms , , is the sail-yard fastened by ropes, ,sepo (Isa 33:23). To lay oneself down on the sail-yard happens thus to no one, and it is no place for such a purpose; but as little as one can quarter him who is on the ridge of the roof, in the ‘Alja, because no one is able to lie down there, so little can he in the bower [ Mastkorb ] him who is here spoken of (Bttcher). The poet says, but only by way of comparison, how critical the situation of the drunkard is; he compares him to one who lies on the highest sail-yard, and is exposed to the danger of being every moment thrown into the sea; for the rocking of the ship is the greater in proportion to the height of the sail-yard. The drunkard is, indeed, thus often exposed to the peril of his life; for an accident of itself not great, or a stroke, may suddenly put an end to his life.
The poet represents the drunken man as now speaking to himself. He has been well cudgelled; but because insensible, he has not felt it, and he places himself now where he will sleep out his intoxication. Far from being made temperate by the strokes inflicted on him, he rejoices in the prospect, when he has awaked out of his sleep, of beginning again the life of drunkenness and revelry which has become a pleasant custom to him. means not only to be sick, but generally to be, or to become, affected painfully; cf. Jer 5:3, where is not the 3rd pl. mas. of , but of . The words are, it is true, a cry of longing of a different kind from Job 7:4. The sleeping man cannot forbear from yielding to the constraint of nature: he is no longer master of himself, he becomes giddy, everything goes round about with him, but he thinks with himself: Oh that I were again awake! and so little has his appetite been appeased by his sufferings, that when he is again awakened, he will begin where he left off yesterday, when he could drink no more. is here, after Nolde, Fleischer, and Hitzig, the relative quando ( quum ); but the bibl. usus loq. gives no authority for this. In that case we would have expected instead of . As the interrog. is more animated than the relat., so also is more animated (1Sa 2:3) than . The suffix of refers to the wine: raised up, he will seek that which has become so dear and so necessary to him.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Solomon here gives fair warning against the sin of drunkenness, to confirm what he had said, v. 20.
I. He cautions all people to keep out of the way of temptations to this sin (v. 31): Look not thou upon the wine when it is red. Red wine was in Canaan looked upon as the best wine, it is therefore called the blood of the grape. Critics judge of wine, among other indications, by the colour of it; some wine, they say, looks charmingly, looks so well that it even says, “Come and drink me;” it moves itself aright, goes down very smoothly, or perhaps the roughness of it is grateful. It is said of generous strong-bodied wine that it even causes the lips of those that are asleep to speak, Cant. vii. 9. But look not thou upon it. 1. “Be not ruled by sense, but by reason and religion. Covet not that which pleases the eye, in hopes that it will please the taste; but let thy serious thoughts correct the errors of thy senses and convince thee that that which seems delightful is really hurtful, and resolve against it accordingly. Let not the heart walk after the eye, for it is a deceitful guide.” 2. “Be not too bold with the charms of this or any other sin; look not, lest thou lust, lest thou take the forbidden fruit.” Note Those that would be kept from any sin must keep themselves from all the occasions and beginnings of it, and be afraid of coming within the reach of its allurements, lest they be overcome by them.
II. He shows the many pernicious consequences of the sin of drunkenness, for the enforcement of this caution. Take heed of the bait, for fear of the hook: At the last it bites, v. 32. All sin will be bitterness in the end, and this sin particularly. It bites like a serpent, when the drunkard is made sick by his surfeit, thrown by it into a dropsy or some fatal disease, beggared and ruined in his estate, especially when his conscience is awakened and he cannot reflect upon it without horror and indignation at himself, but worst of all, at last, when the cup of drunkenness shall be turned into a cup of trembling, the cup of the Lord’s wrath, the dregs of which he must be for ever drinking, and shall not have a drop of water to cool his inflamed tongue. To take off the force of the temptation that there is in the pleasure of the sin, foresee the punishment of it, and what it will at last end in if repentance prevent not. In its latter end it bites (so the word is); think therefore what will be in the end thereof. But the inspired writer chooses to specify those pernicious consequences of this sin which are present and sensible.
1. It embroils men in quarrels, makes them quarrel with others, and say and do that which gives others occasion to quarrel with them, v. 29. He asks, Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who has not, in this world? Many have woe and sorrow, and cannot help it; but drunkards wilfully create woe and sorrow to themselves. Those that have contentions have woe and sorrow; and drunkards are the fools whose lips enter into contention. When the wine is in the wit is out and the passions are up; and thence come drunken scuffles, and drunken frays, and drunken disputes over the cups; many a vexatious ruining law-suit has begun thus. There is babbling, quarrels in word and the exchanging of scurrilous language; yet it rests not there: you shall have wounds without cause, for causes are things which drunkards are in no capacity to judge of, and therefore they deal blows about without the least consideration why or wherefore, and must expect to be in like manner treated themselves. The wounds which men receive in defence of their country and its just rights are their honour; but wounds without cause, received in the service of their lusts, are marks of their infamy. Nay, drunkards wound themselves in a tender part, for they have redness of eyes, symptoms of an inward inflammation; their sight is weakened by it, and their looks are deformed. This comes, (1.) Of drinking long, tarrying long at the wine, and spending that time in drunken company which should be spent in useful business, or in sleep, which should fit for business, v. 30. O the precious hours which thousands throw away thus, every one of which will be brought into the account at the great day! (2.) Of drinking that which is strong and intoxicating. They go up and down to seek wine that will please them; their great enquiry is, “Where is the best liquor?” They seek mixed wine, which is most palatable, but most heady, so willingly do they sacrifice their reason to please their palate!
2. It makes men impure and insolent, v. 33. (1.) The eyes grow unruly and behold strange women to lust after them, and so let in adultery into the heart. Est Venus in vinis–Wine is oil to the fire of lust. Thy eyes shall behold strange things (so some read it); when men are drunk the house turns round with them, and every thing looks strange to them, so that them they cannot trust their own eyes. (2.) The tongue also grows unruly and talks extravagantly; by it the heart utters perverse things, things contrary to reason, religion, and common civility, which they would be ashamed to speak if they were sober. What ridiculous incoherent nonsense men will talk when they are drunk who at another time will speak admirably well and to the purpose!
3. It stupefies and besots men, v. 34. When men are drunk they know not where they are nor what they say and do. (1.) Their heads are giddy, and when they lie down to sleep they are as if they were tossed by the rolling waves of the sea, or upon the top of a mast; hence they complain that their heads swim; their sleep is commonly unquiet and not refreshing, and their dreams are tumultuous. (2.) Their judgments are clouded, and they have no more steadiness and consistency than he that sleeps upon the top of a mast: they drink and forget the law (ch. xxxi. 5): they err through wine (Isa. xxviii. 7), and think as extravagantly as they talk. (3.) They are heedless and fearless of danger, and senseless of the rebukes they are under either from God or man. They are in imminent danger of death, of damnation, lie as much exposed as if they slept upon the top of a mast, and yet are secure and sleep on. They fear no peril when the terrors of the Lord are laid before them; nay, they feel no pain when the judgments of God are actually upon them; they cry not when he binds them. Set a drunkard in the stocks, and he is not sensible of the punishment. “They have stricken me, and I was not sick; I felt it not: it made no impression at all upon me.” Drunkenness turns me into stocks and stones; they are scarcely to be reckoned animals; they are dead while they live.
4. Worst of all, the heart is hardened in the sin, and the sinner, notwithstanding all these present mischiefs that attend it, obstinately persist in it, and hates to be reformed: When shall I awake? Much ado he has to shake off the chains of his drunken sleep; he can hardly get clear of the fumes of the wine, though he strives with them, that (being thirsty in the morning) he may return to it again. So perfectly lost is he to all sense of virtue and honour, and so wretchedly is his conscience seared, that he is not ashamed to say, I will seek it yet again. There is no hope; no, they have loved drunkards, and after them they will go, Jer. ii. 25. This is adding drunkenness to thirst, and following strong drink; those that do so may read their doom Deu 29:19; Deu 29:20, their woe Isa. v. 11, and, if this be the end of the sin, with good reason were we directed to stop at the beginning of it: Look not upon the wine when it is red.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
The Woes of the Drunkard
Verses 29-30 emphasize the reality that drinking is not fun as often claimed, but is woe, sorrow, quarrels, complaints, bruises, bloodshot eyes, and often the prelude to death, Pro 20:1; 2Sa 13:28; Isa 5:11; Isa 5:22.
Verses 31-32 warn against even the slightest involvement with drink because it is a deceiver and has consequences as deadly as the poison of a serpent, Pro 20:1.
Verse 33 warns further that it arouses evil sexual desires and prompts perverse speech, Hab 2:15.
Verses 34-35 refer to the power- of drink to so distort normal senses that control of faculties and movement is lost, 1Sa 25:36-38; Isa 28:7; Jer 5:3; Eph 4:19.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
CRITICAL NOTES.
Pro. 23:30. Mixed winei.e., wine mixed with strong spices.
Pro. 23:31. When it giveth his colour, etc., literally, When it showeth its eye. This may refer to its brightness, or to the head, or pearl of the wine. When it moveth itself, etc., rather when it glideth down with ease.
Pro. 23:33. Strange women, rather strange things.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.Pro. 23:29-35
THE DRUNKARDS PICTURE
I. The drunkard is an entire inversion of man as God intended him to be. God made mans mind to rule his body, but the drunkards bodily appetites rule his mind. God gave man an intellect to guide his actions; He intended the various limbs of his body to be the servants of his will, and to obey the dictates of his reason. But the drunkard not only gives up all his spiritual and intellectual power to his body, but all his other bodily powers to the rule of one sensethat of his palate. Men who are not awake to their spiritual and mental needs might be expected to have as much regard for their animal wants, and to be as careful to avoid bodily suffering as the brute creation. But it is not so with the drunkardalthough nights and days of privation and suffering are often the fruits of an hours drinking, he voluntarily undergoes the former in order to enjoy the latter. Not only is conscience and reason and heart sacrificed to his mouth, but every other bodily sense is made to serve the one sense and every other part of the body to suffer, that one part may be gratified if but for a moment.
II. He is an entire inversion of what we might expect even a fallen man to be. Looking at man as he is when he lives for this world only, he is generally alive to his own immediate temporal interests and careful to avoid in the future what has brought him suffering in the past. But it is not so with the slave to drink. If only wife and children had to lead lives of misery and his own life was a constant round of even animal enjoyment, the drunkards career would not be such an unaccountable infatuation. Human selfishness would be sufficient to account for it. But who suffers like the drunkard himself? The wise man enumerates some of his miserieswoe, grief, contentions and wounds without cause, the stings of remorse, the disordered brain, and entire loss of consciousness and of power to defend ones own life and propertythis is the drunkards heritage. And in the intervals between his madness he knows it and drinks to the dregs the bitter cup of bodily and mental misery that must always follow the immoderate use of the wine cup. And yet his language is I will seek it yet again. The child that has been burnt dreads the fire, but the poor drunkard scarred from head to foot with the marks of the flames, seems with all his other losses to have lost also the natural instinct of self-preservation and the power of learning anything from the great teacherexperience.
III. A consideration of the strength and nature of the drunkards chain should lead all to shun that which enslaved him. When we consider what havoc intoxicating drink has wrought, it is marvellous that men do not turn from it with loathing; that they are not afraid to play with so deadly, and yet so treacherous an enemy to mankind. When the sailor knows that there is a treacherous whirlpool in the ocean, which has engulfed a thousand noble vessels, he is careful to give it a wide berth, to keep far beyond the outermost ring of the current. But the habit of men in general seems to be to try how near they can come to this moral and social gulf of death, without being drawn beneath the waters. The experiment is fraught with deadly peril, and is often a fatal one. Solomons advice is to ensure safety, by not even looking upon the wine when it is red.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
There is mention made of a monk at Prague, who having heard at shrift the confessions of many drunkards, wondered at it, and for experiment would try his brain with this sin, and accordingly stole himself drunk. Now, after the vexation of three sick days, to all that confessed that sin he enjoined no other penance than this: Go and be drunk again. Surely his meaning was like that of Seneca, that drunkenness was a torment and affliction to itself.Spencer.
Drunkenness is a special water at the devils banquet. This sin is a horrible self-theft Thieves cannot steal lands, unless they be Westminster Hall thieves, crafty contenders that eat out a true title with a false evidence; but the drunkard robs himself of his lands. Now he dissolves an acre, and then an acre, into the pot, till he hath ground all his ground at the malt quern, and run all his patrimony through his throat. Thus he makes himself the living tomb of his forefathersof his posterity. He needs not trouble his sick mind with a will, or distrust the fidelity of executors.T. Adams.
Pro. 23:29. The best that can come of drunkenness is repentancethat fairest daughter of so foul a motherand that is not without its woe, and alas! its sorrow and redness of eyes with weeping for sin.Trapp.
Pro. 23:31. He that would avoid the commission of sin must avoid the occasion of sin. If we would not fall down the hill we must beware of coming near the brow of it. Keep thee far from an evil matter. When the wine laughs in thy face then shut thine eyes lest it steal into thine heart. A guest may easily be kept out of the house at first, but if once entertained it is hard to turn him out of doors. When the governor of a fort once comes to parley with the enemy that besiegeth him there is great fear that the place will be surrendered.Swinnock.
Pro. 23:33. One remarkable peculiarity of this chapter is the junction and alternation of these two kindred sins. There they stand, like two plants of death, each growing on its own independent root, and nourished by the same soil, but cleaving close to each other by congeniality of nature, and twisted round each other for mutual support. The alliance, so generally formed and so firmly maintained between drunkenness and licentiousness, is a master-stroke of Satans policy. It is when men have looked upon the deceitful cup, and received into their blood the poison of its sting, that their eyes behold strange women; and when they have fallen into that narrow pit, they run back to hide their shame, at least from themselves, in the maddening draught.Arnot.
Pro. 23:34. The passage is interesting, as showing what Psa. 104:25-26; Psa. 107:23-30, also show, the increased familiarity of the Israelites with a sea life.Plumptre.
It is very foul weather in which a drunkard saileth. For as St. Ambrose speaketh, the multitude of lusts in him do raise a great tempest, which toss his mind to and fro, sailing as it were in the narrow sea of his body, so that he cannot be pilot to itself. But that which maketh the drunkards case worst of all is this: it is a shipwreck of the body only which in a tempest is feared, but he maketh shipwreck of his soul if repentance be not a plank of safety to him.Jermin.
Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell
(29) Wounds without cause?Which might have been avoided, and which serve no good end.
Redness of eyes?Rather, dimness.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Seventeenth Saying (An Ode) Pro 23:29-35 forms a single proverbial thought using twenty lines. This proverb warns us against drinking alcohol and drunkenness. It perverts the heart and lead to woes and sorrows. Yet, a person will continue in it because he is in bondage to this sin.
Pro 23:35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Pro 23:35
[129] The Bible, That is, the Holy Scriptures Containing the Old and New Testament, Translated According to the Hebrew and Greek, and Conferred With the Best Translations in Divers Languages (London: Robert Barker, 1615), notes on Proverbs 23:35.
Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures
v. 29. Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow,
Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann
Pro 23:29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
Ver. 29. Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? ] Whoredom is usually ushered in by drunkenness. Est Venus in vinis. It is Venus in the wines. Hence, Rev 17:4 the whore cometh forth with a “cup,” as with an instrument fit for the fulfilling of her lust; even as of old every one did openly bear in his hand at Rome the badge of that art that he professed. Solomon therefore having warned his young nobleman of whoredom, fitly shows him next the mischief of drunkenness; and this he doth by way of admiration or interrogation, that the drunkard may (will he, nill he) see, as in a glass, and so abhor his own absurdities, miseries, and mischiefs. The best that can come of drunkenness is repentance – that fairest daughter of so foul a mother – and that is not without its woe, and, alas! its sorrow and redness of eyes with weeping for sin. But few drunkards are taken in that fault.
Who hath babbling?
‘Condita cum verax aperit praecordia liber.’ – Horat.
When the wine is in, the wit is out.
Who hath redness of eyes?
a Lavater.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Proverbs
THE PORTRAIT OF A DRUNKARD
Pro 23:29 – Pro 23:35
This vivid picture of the effects of drunkenness leaves its sinfulness and its wider consequences out of sight, and fixes attention on the sorry spectacle which a man makes of himself in body and mind when he ‘puts an enemy into his mouth to steal away his brains.’ Disgust and ridicule are both expressed. The writer would warn his ‘son’ by impressing the ugliness and ludicrousness of drunkenness. The argument is legitimate, though not the highest.
The vehement questions poured out on each other’s heels in Pro 23:29 are hot with both loathing and grim laughter. The two words rendered ‘woe’ and ‘sorrow’ are unmeaning exclamations, very like each other in sound, and imitating the senseless noises of the drunkard. They express discomfort as a dog might express it. They are howls rather than words. That is one of the prerogatives won by drunkenness,-to come down to the beasts’ level, and to lose the power of articulate speech. The quarrelsomeness which goes along with certain stages of intoxication, and the unmeaning maudlin misery and whimpering into which it generally passes, are next coupled together.
Then come a pair of effects on the body. The tipsy man cannot take care of himself, and reeling against obstacles, or falling over them, wounds himself, and does not know where the scratches and blood came from. ‘Redness of eyes’ is, perhaps, rather ‘darkness,’ meaning thereby dim sight, or possibly ‘black eyes,’ as we say,-a frequent accompaniment of drunkenness, and corresponding to the wounds in the previous clause. It is a hideous picture, and one that should be burned in on the imagination of every young man and woman. The liquor-sodden, miserable wrecks that are found in thousands in our great cities, of whom this is a picture, were, most of them, in Sunday-schools in their day. The next generation of such poor creatures are, many of them, in Sunday-schools now, and may be reading this passage to-day.
The answer to these questions has a touch of irony in it. The people who win as their possessions these six precious things have to sit up late to earn them. What a noble cause in which to sacrifice sleep, and turn night into day! And they pride themselves on being connoisseurs in the several vintages; they ‘know a good glass of wine when they see it.’ What a noble field for investigation! What a worthy use of the faculties of comparison and judgment! And how desirable the prizes won by such trained taste and delicate discrimination!
In Pro 23:31 – Pro 23:32 weighty warning and dehortation follow, based in part on the preceding picture. The writer thinks that the only way of sure escape from the danger is to turn away even the eyes from the temptation. He is not contented with saying ‘taste not,’ but he goes the whole length of ‘look not’; and that because the very sparkle and colour may attract. ‘When it is red’ might perhaps better be rendered ‘when it reddens itself,’ suggesting the play of colour, as if put forth by the wine itself. The word rendered in the Authorised Version and Revised Version ‘colour’ is literally ‘eye,’ and probably means the beaded bubbles winking on the surface. ‘Moveth itself aright’ Authorised Version is not so near the meaning as ‘goeth down smoothly’ Revised Version. The whole paints the attractiveness to sense of the wine-cup in colour, effervescence, and taste.
And then comes in, with startling abruptness, the end of all this fascination,-a serpent’s bite and a basilisk’s sting. The kind of poisonous snake meant in the last clause of Pro 23:32 is doubtful, but certainly is one much more formidable than an adder. The serpent’s lithe gracefulness and painted skin hide a fatal poison; and so the attractive wine-cup is sure to ruin those who look on it. The evil consequences are pursued in more detail in what follows.
But here we must note two points. The advice given is to keep entirely away from the temptation. ‘Look not’ is safe policy in regard of many of the snares for young lives that abound in our modern society. It is not at all needful to ‘see life,’ or to know the secrets of wickedness, in order to be wise and good. ‘Simple concerning evil’ is a happier state than to have eaten the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Many a young man has been ruined, body and soul, by a prurient curiosity to know what sort of life dissipated men and women led, or what sort of books they were against which he was warned, or what kind of a place a theatre was, and so on. Eyes are greedy, and there is a very quick telephone from them to the desires. ‘The lust of the eye’ soon fans the ‘lust of the flesh’ into a glow. There are plenty of depths of Satan gaping for young feet; and on the whole, it is safer and happier not to know them, and so not to have defiling memories, nor run the risk of falling into fatal sins. Whether the writer of this stern picture of a drunkard was a total abstainer or not, the spirit of his counsel not to ‘look on the wine’ is in full accord with that practice. It is very clear that if a man is a total abstainer, he can never be a drunkard. As much cannot be said of the moderate man.
Note too, how in all regions of life, the ultimate results of any conduct are the important ones. Consequences are hard to calculate, and they do not afford a good guidance for action. But there are many lines of conduct of which the consequences are not hard to calculate, but absolutely certain. It is childish to take a course because of a moment’s gratification at the beginning, to be followed by protracted discomfort afterwards. To live for present satisfaction of desires, and to shut one’s eyes tight against known and assured results of an opposite sort, cannot be the part of a sensible man, to say nothing of a religious one. So moralists have been preaching ever since there was such a thing as temptation in the world; and men have assented to the common sense of the teaching, and then have gone straight away and done the exact opposite.
‘What shall the end be?’ ought to be the question at every beginning. If we would cultivate the habit of holding present satisfactions in suspense, and of giving no weight to present advantages until we saw right along the road to the end of the journey, there would be fewer failures, and fewer weary, disenchanted old men and women, to lament that the harvest they had to reap and feed on was so bitter. There are other and higher reasons against any kind of fleshly indulgence than that at the last it bites like a serpent, and with a worse poison than serpent’s sting ever darted; but that is a reason, and young hearts, which are by their very youth blessedly unused to look forward, will be all the happier to-day, and all the surer of to-morrow’s good, if they will learn to say, ‘And afterwards-what?’ The passage passes to a renewed description of the effects of intoxication, in which the disgusting and the ludicrous aspects of it are both made prominent. Pro 23:33 seems to describe the excited imagination of the drunkard, whose senses are no longer under his control, but play him tricks that make him a laughingstock to sober people. One might almost take the verse to be a description of delirium tremens. ‘Strange things’ are seen, and perverse things that is, unreal, or ridiculous are stammered out. The writer has a keen sense of the humiliation to a man of being thus the fool of his own bewildered senses, and as keen a one of the absurd spectacle he presents; and he warns his ‘son’ against coming down to such a depth of degradation.
It may be questioned whether the boasted quickening and brightening effects of alcohol are not always, in a less degree, that same beguiling of sense and exciting of imagination which, in their extreme form, make a man such a pitiable and ridiculous sight. It is better to be dull and see things as they are, than to be brilliant and see things larger, brighter, or any way other than they are, because we see them through a mist. Imagination set agoing by such stimulus, will not work to as much purpose as if aroused by truth. God’s world, seen by sober eyes, is better than rosy dreams of it. If we need to draw our inspiration from alcohol, we had better remain uninspired. If we desire to know the naked truth of things, the less we have to do with strong drink the better. Clear eyesight and self-command are in some degree impaired by it always. The earlier stages are supposed to be exhilaration, increased brilliancy of fancy and imagination, expanded good-fellowship, and so on. The latter stages are these in our passage, when strange things dance before cheated eyes, and strange words speak themselves out of lips which their owner no longer controls. Is that a condition to be sought after? If not, do not get on to the road that leads to it.
Pro 23:34 adds another disgusting and ridiculous trait. A man who should try to lie down and go to sleep in the heart of the sea or on the masthead of a ship would be a manifest fool, and would not keep life in him for long. One has seen drunken men laying themselves down to sleep in places as exposed and as ridiculous as these; and one knows the look of the heavy lump of insensibility lying helpless on public roads, or on railway tracks, or anywhere where the fancy took him. The point of the verse seems to be the drunken man’s utter loss of sense of fitness, and complete incapacity to take care of himself. He cannot estimate dangers. The very instinct of self-preservation has forsaken him. There he lies, though as sure to be drowned as if he were in the depth of the sea, though on as uncomfortable a bed as if he were rocking on a masthead, where he could not balance himself.
The torpor of Pro 23:34 follows on the unnatural excitement of Pro 23:33 , as, in fact, the bursts of uncontrolled energy in which the man sees and says strange things, are succeeded by a collapse. One moment raging in excitement caused by imaginary sights, the next huddled together in sleep like death,-what a sight the man is! The teacher here would have his ‘son’ consider that he may come to that, if he looks on the wine-cup. ‘ Thou shalt be’ so and so. It is very impolite, but very necessary, to press home the individual application of pictures like this, and to bid bright young men and women look at the wretched creatures they may see hanging about liquor shops, and remember that they may come to be such as these.
Pro 23:35 finishes the picture. The tipsy man’s soliloquy puts the copestone on his degradation. He has been beaten, and never felt it. Apparently he is beginning to stir in his sleep, though not fully awake; and the first thing he discovers when he begins to feel himself over is that he has been beaten and wounded, and remembers nothing about it. A degrading anaesthetic is drink. Better to bear all ills than to drown them by drowning consciousness. There is no blow which a man cannot bear better if he holds fast by God’s hand and keeps himself fully exposed to the stroke, than if he sought a cowardly alleviation of it, softer the drunkard’s fashion.
But the pains of his beating and the discomforts of his waking do not deter the drunkard. ‘When shall I awake?’ He is not fully awake yet, so as to be able to get up and go for another drink. He is in the stage of feeling sorry for himself, and examining his bruises, but he wishes he were able to shake off the remaining drowsiness, that he might ‘seek yet again’ for his curse. The tyranny of desire, which wakes into full activity before the rest of the man does, and the enfeebled will, which, in spite of all bruises and discomforts, yields at once to the overmastering desire, make the tragedy of a drunkard’s life. There comes a point in lives of fleshly indulgence in which the craving seems to escape from the control of the will altogether. Doctors tell us that the necessity for drink becomes a physical disease. Yes; but it is a disease manufactured by the patient, and he is responsible for getting himself into such a state.
This tragic picture proves that there were many originals of it in the days when it was painted. Probably there are far more, in proportion to population, in our times. The warning it peals out was never more needed than now. Would that all preachers, parents, and children laid it to heart and took the advice not even to ‘look upon the wine’!
Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren
Pro 23:29-30
Pro 23:29-30
“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? Who hath complaining? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? They that tarry long at the wine; They that go to seek out mixed wine.”
Pro 23:29-35 are a song on the subject of drunkenness. All seven verses are included in this 18th `Word’ of the wise men. Taken as a unit, the passage says, “Liquor is poison; don’t touch it.”
The Anchor Bible catches the spirit of these verses perfectly: “Who groans “Alas”? Who cries, “Woe is me”? Who gets into quarrels? Who has complaints? Who suffers needless wounds? Whose eyes are bloodshot? Those who linger over wine, who drain the mixing bowl.” There were two ways of “mixing” wine. One way was diluting it with water; another way was to mix spices with it to increase its potency; and that is the type of `mixing’ mentioned here.
Pro 23:29. Six questions are raised that are answered in the next verse. From the consequences of drinking, the ancients suffered the same woes and sorrows as do moderns who imbibe. The drinker has woe in the physical problems brought on, in his social relations, in his finances, in his slavery to his habit, and in the punishment that awaits him (1Co 6:9-10; Gal 5:19-21). The drinker has sorrow upon sorrow as does his family as a result of his drinking as do others whom he injures while intoxicated. The drinker knows contentions, for many fights take place at taverns. The drinker knows complaining, for he often complains of the way people treat him. The drinker has wounds without cause, for if he stayed sober, he would not get into the trouble he does. The drinker has redness of eyes, an outward commentary on the abuse that his body is inwardly suffering. Isa 5:11; Isa 5:22 also uses woe in warning against strong drink: Woe unto them that rise up early in the morning, that they may follow strong drink; that tarry late into the night, till wine inflame them!…Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink. So does Hab 2:15 : Woe unto him that giveth his neighbor drink.
Pro 23:30. The six questions raised in Pro 23:29 are quickly and bluntly answered here: those who drink intoxicants. Time and its meaning seem to mean nothing to a drunkard, for he will spend hours drinking with others until they are drunken, and then he will sleep it off and seem not to care that he should be at his job instead of in bed. The expression seek out shows that drinkers go forth to get their booze; it is something they must obtain because of the habit they have developed and the appetite they have for booze.
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Who hath woe: Pro 23:21, Pro 20:1, 1Sa 25:36, 1Sa 25:37, 2Sa 13:28, 1Ki 20:16-22, Isa 5:11, Isa 5:22, Isa 28:7, Isa 28:8, Nah 1:10, Mat 24:49, Mat 24:50, Luk 12:45, Luk 12:46, Eph 5:18
redness: Gen 49:12
Reciprocal: Gen 19:33 – drink Deu 21:20 – he is a glutton 1Ki 16:9 – drinking Est 1:11 – Vashti Job 20:14 – his meat Pro 23:20 – not Ecc 2:3 – and to lay Isa 28:1 – drunkards Hos 7:5 – with scorners Hab 2:5 – he transgresseth 1Th 5:7 – and they 1Pe 4:3 – excess
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Pro 23:29-30. Who hath wo? From the sin of lewdness, he proceeds to that of drunkenness, which frequently accompanies it. As if he had said, If thou intendest to avoid such filthy practices, avoid intemperance; the lamentable effects of which are so many, that it is a hard matter to enumerate them. For who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? If thou considerest who they are that run themselves into all manner of mischief; that are never out of danger, but are engaged in perpetual quarrels, disturbing the neighbourhood where they live by their noise, tumult, and fighting; who hath babbling? The sin of much and impertinent talking, or clamour and confusion, usual among drunkards; who hath wounds without cause? Wounds received, not in the defence of his country, but for frivolous causes, and on slight occasions; who hath redness of eyes Which men, inflamed with wine, are very apt to have. They that tarry long at the wine, &c. Thou wilt find they are such as are so in love with wine, that they neither willingly stir from it, nor content themselves with the ordinary sort, but make a diligent search for the richest and most generous kinds; they that go to seek mixed wine Wine mixed with divers ingredients, to make it strong and delicious. Hebrew, , mixture, mixed drinks of several sorts suited to their palates.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
This classic description of drunkenness ironically illustrates the folly of that vice. The father urges his son to remember how too much drinking will end-so its present enjoyment will not captivate him.
"While alcoholism is a medical problem, it is also a moral problem because it involves choices and brings danger to other people." [Note: Ross, p. 1072.]