Proverbs 23:8
in Proverbs 23You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, And lose thy sweet words.
KJV
The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.
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This verse in Proverbs 23
Commentary
5 notes on this verseThis site's exposition
Do not eat the bread
on Proverbs 23:6-8
The "evil eye" of the King James is the stingy host, whose invitation is a performance. He says eat and drink, but "his heart is not with you." The guest who trusts the show will vomit up what he ate and waste the pleasant words he spoke in thanks.
This site's exposition
vomit up what little you have eaten
The meal ends in disgust once the guest sees the host's grudging heart. What he ate comes back up. His pleasant words were wasted on a stingy host, and Franz Delitzsch reads the saying as a warning against judging generosity by the mouth alone.
The record, by era
The Medieval Church1 voice
The food you have eaten you will vomit, etc. The perverse thoughts you had learned from heretics, you must either abandon by correction through repentance, or after death be compelled to suffer punishment for them, and lose the words of confession, by which, while they …
The Puritans and the Awakening1 voice
The morsel which thou hast eaten, shalt thou vomit up,....
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
The morsel which thou hast eaten - On reflection thou wilt even blame thyself for having accepted his invitation.
The words behind it
6 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| פִּֽתְּךָ־ | pitekha- | morsel your | H6595 → | 15 times |
| אָכַ֥לְתָּ | ʾakhalta | [which] you have eaten | H398 → | 810 times |
| תְקִיאֶ֑נָּה | tekienah | you will vomit up it | H6958 → | |
| וְ֝שִׁחַ֗תָּ | veshichata | and you will spoil | H7843 → | 146 times |
| דְּבָרֶ֥יךָ | devareikha | words your | H1697 → | 1440 times |
| הַנְּעִימִֽים׃ | haneimim | <the> pleasant | H5273 → | 13 times |
פִּֽתְּךָ־morsel your
pitekha-H6595 →15 times
אָכַ֥לְתָּ[which] you have eaten
ʾakhaltaH398 →810 times
תְקִיאֶ֑נָּהyou will vomit up it
tekienahH6958 →
וְ֝שִׁחַ֗תָּand you will spoil
veshichataH7843 →146 times
דְּבָרֶ֥יךָwords your
devareikhaH1697 →1440 times
הַנְּעִימִֽים׃<the> pleasant
haneimimH5273 →13 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
Where this verse is studied
On this page
About Proverbs
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Bede, Commentary on Proverbs; Franz Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Proverbs of Solomon; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament and John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763).