Proverbs 23:29-35
New American Standard Bible
29 Who has (A)woe? Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaining?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who has red eyes?
30 Those who (B)linger long over wine,
Those who go to [a]taste (C)mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
When it [b]sparkles in the cup,
When it (D)goes down smoothly;
32 In the end it (E)bites like a snake
And stings like a (F)viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things
And your [c]mind will (G)say perverse things.
34 And you will be like one who lies down in the [d]middle of the sea,
Or like one who lies down on the top of a [e]mast.
35 “They (H)struck me, but I did not become [f]ill;
They beat me, but I did not know it.
When will I awake?
I will (I)seek [g]another drink.”
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:30 Or search out
- Proverbs 23:31 Lit gives its eye
- Proverbs 23:33 Lit heart
- Proverbs 23:34 Lit heart
- Proverbs 23:34 Or lookout
- Proverbs 23:35 I.e., from the effect of wounds
- Proverbs 23:35 Lit it yet again
Proverbs 23:29-35
The Message
18
29-35 Who are the people who are always crying the blues?
Who do you know who reeks of self-pity?
Who keeps getting beaten up for no reason at all?
Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
It’s those who spend the night with a bottle,
for whom drinking is serious business.
Don’t judge wine by its label,
or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with—
the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
Do you really prefer seeing double,
with your speech all slurred,
Reeling and seasick,
drunk as a sailor?
“They hit me,” you’ll say, “but it didn’t hurt;
they beat on me, but I didn’t feel a thing.
When I’m sober enough to manage it,
bring me another drink!”
Proverbs 23:29-35
King James Version
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.
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Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson