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20 Don’t associate with heavy drinkers
    or dine with gluttons,
21 because drunks and gluttons tend to become poor,
    and drowsiness will clothe them in rags.

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20 Do not be among drinkers of wine,
    among gluttonous eaters of their meat.[a]
21 For the drunkard and gluttonous, they will become poor,
    and with rags, drowsiness will clothe them.

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:20 Literally “meat for them”

On Sobriety

29 Who has woe? Who has grief?
    Who has contention? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
    Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who linger over their wine,
    who consume mixed drinks.
31 Don’t stare into red wine,
    when it sparkles in the cup
        and goes down smoothly.
32 Eventually it will bite like a snake
    and sting like a serpent.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
    and with slurred words you’ll speak what you really believe.
34 You will be like someone who lies down in the sea,
    or like someone who sleeps on top of a mast.
35 “They struck me,” you will say,[a]
    “but I never felt it.
They beat me,
    but I never knew it.
When will I wake up?
    I want another drink.”

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:35 The Heb. lacks you will say

29 To whom is woe? To whom is sorrow? To whom are quarrels? To whom is complaint?
    To whom are wounds without cause? To whom is redness of the eyes?
30 To those who linger over wine,
    to those who come to try mixed wine.
31 Do not look at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles[a] on the cup,
    going down smoothly.
32 In the end,[b] it will bite like a serpent,
    and it will sting like an adder.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
    and your heart[c] will speak perverse things.
34 And you will be like him who lies down in the heart of the sea,
    and like him who lies down on top of a mast.
35 “They struck me; I was not hurt. They beat me; I did not know it.
    When I will awake, I will continue; I will seek it again.”

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:31 Literally “gives its eye”
  2. Proverbs 23:32 Literally “end him”
  3. Proverbs 23:33 Or “mind”