20 Do not join those who drink too much wine(A)
    or gorge themselves on meat,
21 for drunkards and gluttons become poor,(B)
    and drowsiness clothes them in rags.

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20 (A)Do not mix with winebibbers,
Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
21 For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty,
And drowsiness will clothe a man with rags.

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Saying 19

29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow?
    Who has strife? Who has complaints?
    Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine,(A)
    who go to sample bowls of mixed wine.
31 Do not gaze at wine when it is red,
    when it sparkles in the cup,
    when it goes down smoothly!
32 In the end it bites like a snake
    and poisons like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange sights,
    and your mind will imagine confusing things.
34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas,
    lying on top of the rigging.
35 “They hit me,” you will say, “but I’m not hurt!
    They beat me, but I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up
    so I can find another drink?”(B)

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29 (A)Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions?
Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause?
Who (B)has redness of eyes?
30 (C)Those who linger long at the wine,
Those who go in search of (D)mixed wine.
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red,
When it sparkles in the cup,
When it [a]swirls around smoothly;
32 At the last it bites like a serpent,
And stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,
And your heart will utter perverse things.
34 Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the [b]midst of the sea,
Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
35 “They(E) have struck me, but I was not hurt;
They have beaten me, but I did not feel it.
When shall (F)I awake, that I may seek another drink?

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Footnotes

  1. Proverbs 23:31 goes around
  2. Proverbs 23:34 Lit. heart