Proverbschapter 23
35 verses · BSBProverbs book hub →
Speaks with:Proverbs 23×6Proverbs 22×4Psalms 119×4Ephesians 5×4Proverbs 28×2Proverbs 19×2
Summary
Chapter summary
The thirty sayings continue. When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently; 'labor not to be rich… riches certainly make themselves wings.' Buy the truth, and sell it not. 'Withhold not correction from the child.' Hearken unto thy father that begat thee; despise not thy mother when she is old. The chapter closes with Scripture's most vivid drunkard's portrait: who hath woe, who hath redness of eyes?, wine at the last biteth like a serpent; 'they have stricken me, and I was not hurt… I will seek it yet again.'
Context
Poetry · Solomon, Agur, Lemuel — Proverbs overview
- A. 1–11 When Thou Sittest to Eat With a Ruler
- B. 12–25 Buy the Truth and Sell It Not; Withhold Not Correction
- C. 26–35 Who Hath Woe? Wine at the Last Biteth Like a Serpent
The outline
A.When Thou Sittest to Eat With a Rulervv. 1 to 11
Read vv. 1 to 11 →B.Buy the Truth and Sell It Not; Withhold Not Correctionvv. 12 to 25
Read vv. 12 to 25 →C.Who Hath Woe? Wine at the Last Biteth Like a Serpentvv. 26 to 35
Read vv. 26 to 35 →
The world behind this chapter
Proverbs 23The history
"When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat, if thou be a man given to appetite." Court banquets were political events. A patron fed you well and watched how you behaved, and an eager guest revealed his appetites in public. "His dainties are deceitful meat" warns that the meal is a test with a bill attached.
"Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye" names a figure the whole ancient Near East recognised: the grudging, stingy host who counts every bite while urging you to take more. The chapter says the food will come back up because the hospitality was never real.
"Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright" describes wine being examined the way a connoisseur examines it — held up, the colour and the bead admired. Then the chapter follows the same man to the end of the night: seeing strange things, feeling nothing when struck, lying down "in the midst of the sea, or… upon the top of a mast." That last image, a man swaying at the masthead of a ship, is the most vivid description of drunkenness in the Bible.
"Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless: for their redeemer is mighty." The redeemer was the kinsman legally obliged to buy back a relative's lost land and defend him in court. An orphan had no such man — and the proverb says God takes that role.
What it meant to them
For a young man newly admitted to important tables, this chapter was survival training: eat carefully, do not wear yourself out chasing riches, and remember that wealth "flieth away as an eagle toward heaven."
It then turns homeward: "my son, give me thine heart." After all the etiquette and the warnings, the thing asked for is not performance at the table but the boy himself.
Sources cited
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Proverbs 23. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.