Proverbschapter 23
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A.When Thou Sittest to Eat With a Rulervv. 1-11
Proverbs 23:1-3
When thou sittest to eat with a ruler: The chapter opens at a ruler's table, and the counsel is self-control before it is etiquette: consider diligently what is before thee, and put a knife to thy throat if given to appetite. The dainties are called deceitful meat, because a great man's food can be the bait for a favor he means to extract, and the guest who forgets that eats himself into a debt he did not intend. Bridges reads the verse as training for any table where flattery or advantage sits across from the plate.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:1, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:1
“Divine Scripture commands that, when we have been invited to a rich man's banquet, we should with understanding put forth our hand to the dishes. And so for us too the banquet of Scriptures has been set out as a rich man's feast. We have come into a meadow; it has very many flowers: here the rose is red, there the lilies gleam white, there are flowers of every kind. Our soul is drawn this way and that, to gather from wherever it may the more beautiful flowers.”
Jerome· fifth century· HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 11 (PSALM 77)patristic
Proverbs 23:1
“What is before thee - Beware lest dainties tempt thee to excess. Or, “consider diligently who is before thee,” the character and temper of the ruler who invites thee.”
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:2, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:2
“And put a knife to thy throat,.... Refrain from too much talk at the table; give not too loose to thy tongue, but bridle it, considering in whose presence thou art; do not use too much freedom, either with the ruler or fellow guests; which, when persons have ate and drank well, they are too apt to do, and sometimes say things offensive to one or the other; it is good for a man to be upon his guard; see Ecc 5:”
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:3, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:3
“There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. "Desire not," says the Scripture, "rich men's dainties;" for they belong to a false and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go to the dunghill.”
Clement of Alexandria· third century· The Instructor Book 2patristic
Proverbs 23:3
“Dainties ... deceitful meat - Such as “savory meat,” venison Gen 27:4, offered not from genuine hospitality, but with some by-ends.”
Proverbs 23:4-5
Labour not to be rich: sets the limit, and cease from thine own wisdom names the trap, a man's own cleverness scheming for money he was never meant to chase. Riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an eagle toward heaven is the book's sharpest picture of wealth's instability, gone by its own motion and not by theft. Gill and Henry both point the proverb at the pursuit rather than at possession itself; a man may have riches without labouring after them, and the warning falls on the striving heart.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:4, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:4
“Labour not to be rich - Let not this be thy object. Labour to provide things honest in the sight of God and all men; and if thou get wealth, do not forget the poor, else God’s curse will be a canker even in thy gold. Cease from thine own wisdom - בינתך binathecha, thy own understanding or prudence.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:4
“They have a real existence in nature and are the real gifts of Providence, but in the kingdom of grace they are things that are not; they are not a happiness and portion for a soul, are not what they promise to be nor what we expect them to be; they are a show, a shadow, a sham upon the soul that trusts to them.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proverbs 23:6-8
the bread of him that hath an evil eye: The evil eye here is the stingy host, one whose invitation is a performance: Eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he reads the man's true measure by his private calculation rather than his public words, and the guest who trusts the show will vomit up the morsel and lose the sweet words he spoke in thanks. Delitzsch notes the proverb as a warning against reading generosity from a mouth alone.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:6, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:6
“Wise, therefore, was he who forbids us even to dine in company with an envious man, and in mentioning this companionship at table, he implies a reference to all other social contacts as well. Just as we are careful to keep material which is easily inflammable as far away as possible from fire, so we must refrain insofar as we can from contracting friendships in circles of which envious persons are members. By so doing, we place ourselves beyond the range of their shafts. We can be caught in the toils of envy only by establishing intimacy with it.”
Basil of Caesarea· fourth century· HOMILY CONCERNING ENVYpatristic
Proverbs 23:6
“Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye,.... A sordid covetous man, that grudges every bit that is eaten, in opposition to a man of a good eye, or a bountiful one, that is liberal and generous, Pro 22:9; if he invites to a meal, do not accept of it, sit not down at his table to eat with him: neither desire thou his dainty meats; or savoury food, so as to lust after it; See Gill on Pro 23:3.”
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:7, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:7
“For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he,.... He is not the man his mouth speaks or declares him to be, but what his heart thinks; which is discovered by his looks and actions, and by which he is to be judged of, and not by his words; eat and drink, saith he to thee, but his heart is not with thee; he bids you eat and drink, but he does not desire you should, at least but very sparingly; it is only a mere compliment, not a hearty welcome.”
Proverbs 23:7
Thinketh - The Hebrew verb is found here only, and probably means, “as he is all along in his heart, so is he (at last) in act.”
Proverbs 23:9
Speak not in the ears of a fool: , for he will despise the wisdom of thy words stands as its own single proverb and matches the pearls-before-swine counsel the tradition drew from it. The fool's contempt is not a failure of the speaker's argument but the fixed condition of the hearer, and Bridges reads the verse as teaching discernment about audience rather than silence as a virtue in itself.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:9, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:9
“Do not speak in the ears of fools, etc. This is similar to that of the Gospel, Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, etc. (Matthew 7:6). Just as he previously admonished not to listen to the doctrines …”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 23:10-11
Remove not the old landmark: repeats a command already given at 22:28, and the added clause here names the class it protects, the fields of the fatherless. The reason given is not merely law but a person: their redeemer is mighty, he shall plead their cause with thee, God himself standing as the goel for the orphan whose boundary stone a stronger neighbor has quietly moved. Henry ties the redeemer language to the same office Job invokes at Job 19:25, the living kinsman-avenger who takes up a weak man's case.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:10, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:10
“Remove not the old landmark,.... See Gill on Pro 22:28; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless; to carry off the increase of them, to reap their wheat, or mow their grass, or turn in cattle to eat it; or to encroach upon them, take in any part of them, or join the whole to their own; for if there is a woe to them that lay field to field, much more to them that enter into and take the fields of the fatherless, and join them to their own, Isa 5:8.”
Proverbs 23:10
“Remove not the old landmark - See Pro 22:28 (note). Enter not into the fields of the fatherless - Take nothing that belongs to an orphan. The heaviest curse of God will fall upon them that do so.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 3What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:11, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:11
“Receive into thy ears the teaching of the great Solomon: God hates the poor man to be a pleader on high. [Prov. 23:11] Therefore submit thyself, and give honour to Him that is powerful; for the soft speech-thou knowest the proverb-melts. [Prov. 15:1] One is …”
Commodian· third century· On Christian Discipline, LXXIIpatristic
Proverbs 23:11
“For their Redeemer is mighty,.... As he must needs be, since the Lord of hosts is his name; who sympathizes with them, has mercy on them, is their father, and their friend; see Jer 50:34; he shall plead their cause with thee; or "against thee", as the Vulgate Latin version; and will certainly carry it for them, and against thee; for, when he undertakes a cause, he pleads it thoroughly.”
Proverbs 23:11
“The reason is given for the precept Pro 23:10. Their redeemer - See Job 19:25 note. It was the duty of the גאל gā'al, the next of kin, to take on himself, in case of murder, the office of avenger of blood Num 35:19. By a slight extension the word was applied to one who took on himself a like office in cases short of this. Here, therefore, the thought is that, destitute as the fatherless may seem, there is One who claims them as His next of kin, and will avenge them.”
B.Buy the Truth and Sell It Not; Withhold Not Correctionvv. 12-25
Proverbs 23:12-14
Apply thine heart unto instruction: reopens the father's direct appeal after the ruler-and-landmark sayings, and the rod verses that follow are among the book's plainest on discipline: withhold not correction, for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die. Thou shalt deliver his soul from hell states the stakes in the starkest terms the collection uses, correction aimed at the child's whole future rather than at the moment's offense. The commentators read the passage inside its ancient household setting and never as counsel detached from the father's evident love in the surrounding verses.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:13, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:13-14
“As small children who are negligent in learning become more attentive and obedient after being punished by their teacher or tutor, and as they do not listen before the lash, but, after feeling the pain of a beating, hear and respond as though their ears were just recently opened, improving also in memory, so likewise with those who neglect divine doctrine and spurn the commandments. For, after they experience God's correction and discipline, then the commandments of God which had always been known to them and always neglected are most readily received as though by ears freshly cleansed.”
Basil of Caesarea· fourth century· HOMILY ON THE BEGINNING OF PROVERBS 5patristic
Proverbs 23:13
“While there is little danger that the use of the "divine ordinance of the rod" will produce bodily harm, there is great hope of spiritual good. The pleasure afforded the teacher by the pupil's progress is a motive to diligence.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:14, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:14
“Thou shalt beat him with the rod - A proper correction of children was a favourite point of discipline with Solomon. We have already seen how forcibly he speaks on this subject. See the notes on the places referred to in 1Co 5:5 (note).”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:15-16
my heart shall rejoice: The father turns from correction to affection without a seam: if thine heart be wise, my heart shall rejoice, even mine, and my reins shall rejoice, when thy lips speak right things. Bridges hears in even mine the father insisting on his own stake in the son's wisdom, not a teacher's satisfaction but a parent's joy, and the reins, the innermost organs in Hebrew idiom, name a gladness felt in the body and not only approved in the mind.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:15, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:15
“Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims. Pro 23:16 The teacher rejoices when the disciple’s heart Pro 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it. Reins - See Job 19:27 note. Pro 23:17 Envy sinners - Compare in Psa 37:1; Psa 73:3; the feeling which looks half-longingly at the prosperity of evil doers. Some connect the verb “envy” with the second clause, “envy not sinners, but envy, emulate, the fear of the Lord.” Pro 23:18 Or, For if there is an end (hereafter), thine expectations shall not be cut off.”
Proverbs 23:17-18
Let not thine heart envy sinners: answers the pressure that runs through the whole book, watching the wicked prosper, with a single correction: be thou in the fear of the Lord all the day long. For surely there is an end, and thine expectation shall not be cut off promises an outcome the present moment cannot show, and Henry reads it as the same patience Psalm 73 works through at length, envy dissolved by looking to the last account rather than the present balance.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:18, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:18
“Surely there is an end - יש אחרית yesh acharith, there is another life; “and thy expectation” of the enjoyment of a blessed immortality “shall not be cut off.” The Old MS. Bible reads thus: For thou schalt hab hop in the last: and thin abiiding schal not ben taken awei. “For the ende is not yet come; and thy patient abydinge shal not be in vayne.” - Coverdale.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:19-21
Hear thou, my son, and be wise: opens a fresh appeal that runs straight into the chapter's long drunkard poem, and these verses give its first, plainer form: be not among winebibbers, among riotous eaters of flesh. The drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty names two appetites in one sentence, and drowsiness clothing a man with rags pictures the slow, unnoticed decline rather than a single dramatic ruin. Gill reads the pairing of drink and food as the same undisciplined appetite working in two directions at once.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:20, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:20
“Be not among winebibbers - There is much of this chapter spent in giving directions concerning eating, drinking, and entertainments in general. 1. he pupil is directed relative to the manner in which he is to conduct himself in his visits to the tables of the rich and great. 2. Relative to the covetous and his intercourse with them. And 3. To public entertainnlents, where there were generally riot and debauch. The reasons, says Calmet, which induced the wise man to give these directions were, 1. The useless expense. 2. The loss of time. 3. The danger from bad company.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:20-21
“Drunkenness is the cause of drowsiness; it stupefies men, and makes them inattentive to business, and then all goes to wreck and ruin: thus men that have lived creditably come to be clothed with rags. This is another sin which takes away the heart that should be given to God, Hos. iv. He shows the danger which attends that sin,”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:21, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:21
“For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty,.... They consuming their substance upon their bellies, in eating and drinking; see Pro 21:17; and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags; excessive eating and drinking brings drowsiness on men, unfits them for business, and makes them idle and slothful; and spending all on their bellies, they have nothing for their backs, and are clothed in rags; see Pro 24:33.”
Proverbs 23:22
Hearken unto thy father: that begat thee, and despise not thy mother when she is old renews the fifth commandment's honor across a whole lifetime, naming the temptation directly: not only obeying a young child's parent but honoring an aged one whose usefulness a careless son might discount. Henry reads when she is old as the verse's real weight, since honor is easy while parents are strong and becomes the test only once they are not.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:22, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:22
“Despise not thy mother when she is old - A very necessary caution, as very old women are generally helpless, useless, and burdensome: yet these circumstances do not at all lessen the child’s duty. And this duty is strengthened by the Divine command here given.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:23
Buy the truth, and sell it not: stands as one of the book's most quoted lines, truth priced as a possession worth any cost and never worth surrendering once owned. Also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding widens the same command across the book's whole vocabulary for the wise life, and Bridges notes that buying implies labor and sacrifice, not a gift that falls into the lap unearned.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:23, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:23
Buy the truth - Acquire the knowledge of God at all events; and in order to do this, too much pains, industry, and labor cannot be expended. And sell it not - When once acquired, let no consideration deprive thee of it. Cleave to and guard it, even at the risk of thy life. Coverdale translates: “Labour for to get the treuth; sell not awaye wissdome.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:23
“John Bunyan pictures the pilgrims as passing at one time through Vanity Fair, and in Vanity Fair there were to be found all kinds of merchandise, consisting of the pomp and vanities, the lusts and pleasures of this present life and of the flesh. Now all the dealers, when they saw these strange pilgrims come into the fair, began to cry, as vendors will do, "Buy, buy, buy—buy this, and buy that." There were the priests in the Italian row with their crucifixes and their beads. There were those in the German row with their philosophies and their metaphysics.”
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 3449: “Buying the Truth” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Proverbs 23:24-25
The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice: answers the earlier promise of verse 15 from the other side, the parent's gladness now stated as the settled outcome of a wise child rather than a hoped-for feeling. Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice names the mother a second time by her own act of bearing, and Gill reads the doubled naming of father and mother together as the verse's deliberate completeness.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:25, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:25
“Let your father and mother rejoice, etc. Let God the Father rejoice over your righteousness; let the Church, your mother, also rejoice; and let the priest who regenerated you through the grace of baptism, and who educated you from childhood, rejoice in your good works.”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
C.Who Hath Woe? Wine at the Last Biteth Like a Serpentvv. 26-35
Proverbs 23:26-28
give me thine heart: My son, give me thine heart is the father's plainest request in the whole book, and it opens directly into the warning against the strange woman: a whore is a deep ditch, and a strange woman is a narrow pit, the two images sharing the same danger, a fall a man does not see coming and cannot easily climb back out of. She also lieth in wait as for a prey names the predatory side of the danger the earlier chapters already drew, and Bridges reads give me thine heart as the whole chapter's real subject, since a heart already given has no room left for the pit to catch.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:26, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:26
“My son, give me thine heart - This is the speech of God to every human soul; give thy affections to God, so as to love him with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. And let thine eyes observe my ways - Be obedient to me in all things. My son, thou believest that I Am, and that I Am the Fountain of all good. Give me thy heart; it is I alone who can make thee happy. Observe my ways - follow me; do what is right in my sight. This exhortation contains three words: Believe, Love, Obey!”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:26
“THESE are the words of Solomon speaking in the name of Wisdom, which wisdom is but another name for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is made of God unto us Wisdom. If you ask, "What is the highest wisdom upon the earth?" it is to believe in Jesus Christ whom God has sent—to become His follower and disciple—to trust Him and imitate Him. It is God, in the Person of His dear Son, who says to each one of us, "My son, give Me your heart." Can we answer, "Lord, I have given You my heart"?”
Charles Spurgeon· The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Sermon No. 1995: “The Heart—a Gift for God” (lightly modernized text, CCEL edition) (1887)Particular (Reformed) Baptist / Five-point Calvinist / 1689 LBCF / 19th-c. evangelical
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:27, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:27
“For a whore is a deep ditch,.... Or, "as a deep ditch", so Aben Ezra; to which she may be compared for the filthiness of her whoredoms, and for her insatiable lust, as well as for her being never satisfied with what she receives from her lovers. Plautus compares (g) her to the sea, which devours whatever you give, and yet nothing appears; and another (h) calls a whore Charybdis, from her swallowing up and devouring all a man has.”
Proverbs 23:27-28
“It is like a deep ditch and a narrow pit, which it is almost impossible to get out of; and therefore it is wisdom to keep far enough from the brink of it. Take heed of making any approaches towards this sin, because it is so hard to make a retreat from it, conscience, which should head the retreat, being debauched by it, and divine grace forfeited.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:28, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:28
“She also lieth in wait as for a prey,.... At the door of her house, in the corner of the streets, in the dark of the night; laying her snares, and spreading her nets, for unwary persons, to make a prey of their virtue and of their money.”
Proverbs 23:29-30
Who hath woe? who hath sorrow?: The chapter closes with its strangest and most vivid poem, six rhetorical questions fired in a row before the answer ever comes: who hath woe, who hath sorrow, who hath contentions, who hath babbling, who hath wounds without cause, who hath redness of eyes. The answer lands as its own line, they that tarry long at the wine, they that go to seek mixed wine, the riddle's suspense itself part of the poem's craft. Delitzsch reads the piled questions as deliberately overwhelming, mimicking the drunkard's own scattered, complaining speech before the reader ever reaches the cause.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:29, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:29
“Who hath wo? - I believe Solomon refers here to the natural effects of drunkenness. And perhaps אוי oi, which we translate wo, and אבוי 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.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:29
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:30, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:30
“Is it not to those who linger over wine? etc. He does not forbid drinking wine for need, but lingering in wine beyond time and usefulness, and competing to empty each other's chalices; according to Isaiah: Woe to you who are mighty to drink wine, …”
Bede· eighth century· Commentary on Proverbspatristic
Proverbs 23:31-32
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red: carries the poem into direct address, the color and movement in the cup described with real fascination before the trap springs: at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. Henry reads the serpent figure as the poem's turn, the same wine that looked beautiful in the glass proving venomous in the end, the pleasure and the poison packed into one image rather than two separate warnings.
Voices on this verse, 2What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:31, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:31
“Look not thou upon the wine - Let neither the color, the odour, the sparkling, etc., of the wine, when poured out, induce thee to drink of it. However good and pure it may be, it will to thee be a snare, because thou art addicted to it, and hast no self-command.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Proverbs 23:31
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:32, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:32
“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.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proverbs 23:33-35
Thine eyes shall behold strange women: The poem's last lines follow the drunkard past the cup into the ruin it produces: strange women seen where they should not be, a perverse heart, and a body so numbed it is like a man lying down in the midst of the sea or on the top of a mast, danger everywhere and no sense of it. The final verse gives the drunkard his own voice, they have stricken me and I was not sick, I felt it not, when shall I awake, I will seek it yet again, and Bridges reads the last line as the poem's true horror, not ignorance of the harm but the resolve to return to it anyway.
Voices on this verse, 1What a preacher or commentator has said about Proverbs 23:33, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:33
“Thine eyes shall behold strange women - Evil concupiscence is inseparable from drunkenness. Mr. Herbert shows these effects well: - He that is drunken may his mother kill, Big with his sister: he hath lost the reins; Is outlawed by himself. All kinds of ill Did, with his liquor, slide into his veins. The drunkard forfeits man; and doth divest All worldly right, save what he hath by beast. Herbert’s Poems - The Church Porch.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 3What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:34, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:34
“For he sleeps in the midst of the sea who, placed among the temptations of this world, neglects to look out for the motions of vices that rush in upon him like impending heaps of waves. And the steersman, as it were, lets go the rudder when the mind loses the earnestness of solicitude for guiding the ship of the body. For, indeed, to let go the rudder in the sea is to leave off intentness of forethought among the storms of this life.”
Gregory the Dialogist· seventh century· Pastoral Rule, Part 3patristic
Proverbs 23:34
“Yea, thou shall be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea,.... Not in the open sea, and the waves of it, there fluctuating and tossed about; nor in an island encompassed by sea; but in a ship at sea, a drunken man reels and tumbles about, just as a ship does at sea; hence the motions and agitations of it, and of the men in it, are compared to the reeling and staggering of a drunken man, Psa 107:26; or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast: where the motion is the greatest.”
Proverbs 23:34
“Lieth down in the midst of the sea - He is utterly regardless of life; which is expressed very forcibly by one in a state of intoxication ascending the shrouds, clasping the mast-head, and there falling asleep; whence, in a few moments, he must either fall down upon the deck and be dashed to pieces, or fall into the sea and be drowned. Reader, if thou be a man given to this appetite, put a knife to thy throat.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Voices on this verse, 3What preachers and commentators have said about Proverbs 23:35, in their own words.
Proverbs 23:35
“Whence, also, the utterance of one that is stricken and yet sleeps is expressed by Solomon, who says, "They have beaten thee, and I was not pained; they have dragged me, and I felt it not. When shall I awake and again find wine?" For the soul that sleeps from the care of its solicitude is beaten and feels not pain, because, as it foresees not impending evils, so neither is it aware of those which it has perpetrated.”
Gregory the Dialogist· seventh century· The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 32patristic
Proverbs 23:35
“They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick,.... Or "grieved not" (x); or was not wounded or skin broken (y); see Jer 5:”
Proverbs 23:35
“They have stricken me - Though beat and abused, full of pain, and exhibiting a frightful figure; yet so drunk was he, as to be insensible who had struck him: still, after all this abuse and disgrace, he purposes to embrace the next opportunity of repeating his excesses! Sin makes a man contemptible in life, miserable in death, and wretched to all eternity. Is it not strange, then, that men should Love it?”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Where the chapter sits
Proverbs 23 falls in Solomon's proverbs proper (chapters 10–24). Short antithetical and synonymous couplets; the core of the book's gnomic register. Ch 22:17–24:34 labeled ''words of the wise''.
Before it: Sayings of Solomon: long discourses, chapters 1–9. After it: Hezekiah's men: Solomon's proverbs copied, chapters 25–29.
The whole shape of Proverbs→Key words
The Hebrew words this chapter turns on, by how often it uses them. Each one opens its word study.
| Word | What it means | Verses |
|---|---|---|
| לֵבlêb9 times, as וְ֝לִבּ֗וֹ, לִבֶּ֑ךָ, לִבִּ֣י | heart | 7, 12, 15, 17 and 4 more |
| עַיִןʻayin6 times, as עֵינֶ֥יךָ, עָ֑יִן, וְ֝עֵינֶ֗יךָ | eye | 5, 6, 26, 29 and 2 more |
| שָׂמַחsâmach4 times, as יִשְׂמַ֖ח, יִשְׂמַח, בּֽוֹ׃ | to rejoice | 15, 24, 25 |
| נֶפֶשׁnephesh3 times, as נֶ֣פֶשׁ, בְּנַפְשׁ֗וֹ, וְ֝נַפְשׁ֗וֹ | soul | 2, 7, 14 |
| בַּלbal3 times, as בַּל־, בַל־ | not | 7, 35 |
| דָבַרdâbar3 times, as תְּדַבֵּ֑ר, בְּדַבֵּ֥ר, יְדַבֵּ֥ר | speak | 9, 16, 33 |
Cross references
The 8 chapters this one speaks with, most first. Open a row for the verses it shares.
Proverbs 224 verses
Proverbs 23:27
Proverbs 22:14The mouth of strange women is a deep pit: he that is abhorred of the Lord shall fall therein.Proverbs 23:14
Proverbs 22:15Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.Proverbs 23:11
Proverbs 22:23For the Lord will plead their cause, and spoil the soul of those that spoiled them.Proverbs 23:10
Proverbs 22:28Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set.- Read Proverbs 22 →
Psalms 1194 verses
Proverbs 23:26
Psalms 119:2Blessed are they that keep his testimonies, and that seek him with the whole heart.Proverbs 23:26
Psalms 119:9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.Proverbs 23:31
Psalms 119:37Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken thou me in thy way.Proverbs 23:23
Psalms 119:72The law of thy mouth is better unto me than thousands of gold and silver.- Read Psalms 119 →
Ephesians 52 verses
Proverbs 23:16
Ephesians 5:4Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks.Proverbs 23:20, 29, 30
Ephesians 5:18And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;- Read Ephesians 5 →
Proverbs 282 verses
Proverbs 23:17
Proverbs 28:14Happy is the man that feareth alway: but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief.Proverbs 23:4
Proverbs 28:20A faithful man shall abound with blessings: but he that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent.- Read Proverbs 28 →
The rest of the chapters this one speaks with, 4 of them, for a reader following a thread past the four above
- Proverbs 22 verses
- Proverbs 192 verses
- Proverbs 152 verses
- Isaiah 282 verses
Cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge and OpenBible.info.
The world behind itThe place, the time and the people around this chapter, for a reader who wants the setting.
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 14 works. Open for the list.
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Basil of Caesarea; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Charles Bridges, An Exposition of the Book of Proverbs; Charles Spurgeon; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 2; Commodian, On Christian Discipline, LXXII; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; Gregory the Dialogist; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871); Jerome, HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 11 (PSALM 77); John Gill and Matthew Henry.