Proverbs 20:1
New English Translation
Footnotes
- Proverbs 20:1 sn The drinks are wine and barley beer (e.g., Lev 10:9; Deut 14:26; Isa 28:7). These terms here could be understood as personifications, but better as metonymies for those who drink wine and beer. The inebriated person mocks and brawls.
- Proverbs 20:1 tn The two participles לֵץ (lets, “mocker”) and הֹמֶה (homeh, “brawler”) are substantives; they function as predicates in the sentence. Excessive use of intoxicants excites the drinker to boisterous behavior and aggressive attitudes—it turns them into mockers and brawlers.
- Proverbs 20:1 sn The proverb does not prohibit the use of wine or beer; in fact, strong drink was used at festivals and celebrations. But intoxication was considered out of bounds for a member of the covenant community (e.g., 23:20-21, 29-35; 31:4-7). To be led astray by their use is not wise.
Proverbs 20:1
New Living Translation
20 Wine produces mockers; alcohol leads to brawls.
Those led astray by drink cannot be wise.
Proverbs 23:19-21
New English Translation
19 Listen, my child,[a] and be wise,
and guide your heart on the right way.
20 Do not spend time[b] among drunkards,[c]
among those who eat too much[d] meat,
21 because drunkards and gluttons become impoverished,
and drowsiness[e] clothes them with rags.[f]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:19 tn Heb “my son,” but the immediate context does not limit this to male children.
- Proverbs 23:20 tn Heb “do not be among,” but in the sense of “associate with” (TEV); “join” (NIV); “consort…with” (NAB).
- Proverbs 23:20 tn The verb סָבָא (savaʾ) means “to imbibe; to drink largely.” The participial construction here, סֹבְאֵי־יַיִן (soveʾe yayin), describes “drunkards” (cf. NLT) which is somewhat stronger than saying it refers to “people who drink too much” (cf. NIV, TEV).
- Proverbs 23:20 tn The verb זָלַל (zalal) means “to be light; to be worthless; to make light of.” Making light of something came to mean “to be lavish with; to squander,” especially with regard to food. So it describes “gluttons” primarily, but in the expression there is also room for the person who wastes a lot of food as well.
- Proverbs 23:21 tn Here “drowsiness” is a metonymy of effect or adjunct, put for the drunkenness and gluttony that causes it. So all of it, the drunkenness and the drowsiness that comes from it, brings on the ruin (cf. CEV “you will end up poor”). Likewise, “rags” is a metonymy of adjunct, associated with the poverty brought on by a dissolute lifestyle.
- Proverbs 23:21 sn This is the fourteenth saying, warning about poor associations. Drunkenness and gluttony represent the epitome of the lack of discipline. In the Mishnah they are used to measure a stubborn and rebellious son (m. Sanhedrin 8). W. G. Plaut notes that excessive drinking and eating are usually symptoms of deeper problems; we usually focus more on the drinking because it is dangerous to others (Proverbs, 241-42).
Proverbs 23:19-21
New Living Translation
19 My child, listen and be wise:
Keep your heart on the right course.
20 Do not carouse with drunkards
or feast with gluttons,
21 for they are on their way to poverty,
and too much sleep clothes them in rags.
Proverbs 23:29-35
New English Translation
29 Who has woe?[a] Who has sorrow?
Who has contentions? Who has complaints?
Who has wounds without cause? Who has dullness[b] of the eyes?
30 Those who linger over wine,
those who go looking for mixed wine.[c]
31 Do not look on the wine when it is red,
when it sparkles[d] in the cup,
when it goes down smoothly.[e]
32 Afterward[f] it bites like a snake,
and stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things,[g]
and your mind will speak perverse things.
34 And you will be like one who lies down in the midst[h] of the sea,
and like one who lies down on the top of the rigging.[i]
35 You will say,[j] “They have struck me, but I am not harmed!
They beat me, but I did not know it![k]
When will I awake? I will look for another drink.”[l]
Footnotes
- Proverbs 23:29 sn The eighteenth saying is about excessive drinking. The style changes here as the sage breaks into a vivid use of the imagination. It begins with a riddle describing the effects of drunkenness (v. 29) and gives the answer in v. 30; instructions follow in v. 31, with the consequences described in v. 32; the direct address continues in vv. 33 and 34; and the whole subject is concluded with the drunkard’s own words in v. 35 (M. E. Andrews, “Variety of Expression in Proverbs 23:29-35, ” VT 28 [1978]: 102-3).
- Proverbs 23:29 sn The Hebrew word translated “dullness” describes darkness or dullness of the eyes due to intoxication, perhaps “redness” (so KJV, NASB, NRSV); NIV, NCV, NLT “bloodshot eyes.” NAB understands the situation differently: “black eyes.”
- Proverbs 23:30 sn The answer to the question posed in v. 29 is obviously one who drinks too much, which this verse uses metonymies to point out. Lingering over wine is an adjunct of drinking more wine; and seeking mixed wine obviously means with the effect or the purpose of drinking it.
- Proverbs 23:31 tn Heb “its eye gives.” With CEV’s “bubbling up in the glass” one might think champagne was in view.
- Proverbs 23:31 tn The expression is difficult. The imagery has some similarity to Song 7:9, although the parallel is not exact. The verb is the Hitpael imperfect of הָלַךְ (halakh); and the prepositional phrase uses the word “upright; equity; pleasing,” from יָשָׁר (yashar). KJV has “when it moveth itself aright”; much more helpful is ASV “when it goeth down smoothly.” Most recent English versions are similar to ASV. The phrase obviously refers to the pleasing nature of wine.
- Proverbs 23:32 tn Heb “its end”; NASB “At the last”; TEV (interpretively) “The next morning.”
- Proverbs 23:33 tn The feminine plural of זָר (zar, “strange things”) refers to the trouble one has in seeing and speaking when drunk.
- Proverbs 23:34 tn Heb “heart.” The idiom here means “middle”; KJV “in the midst.”
- Proverbs 23:34 sn The point of these similes is to compare being drunk with being seasick. One who tries to sleep when at sea, or even worse, when up on the ropes of the mast, will be tossed back and forth.
- Proverbs 23:35 tn The phrase “You will say” is supplied in the translation to make it clear that the drunkard is now speaking.
- Proverbs 23:35 sn The line describes how one who is intoxicated does not feel the pain, even though beaten by others. He does not even remember it.
- Proverbs 23:35 tn The last line has only “I will add I will seek it again.” The use of אוֹסִיף (ʾosif) signals a verbal hendiadys with the next verb: “I will again seek it.” In this context the suffix on the verb refers to the wine—the drunkard wants to go and get another drink.
Proverbs 23:29-35
New Living Translation
29 Who has anguish? Who has sorrow?
Who is always fighting? Who is always complaining?
Who has unnecessary bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes?
30 It is the one who spends long hours in the taverns,
trying out new drinks.
31 Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,
how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.
32 For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;
it stings like a viper.
33 You will see hallucinations,
and you will say crazy things.
34 You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea,
clinging to a swaying mast.
35 And you will say, “They hit me, but I didn’t feel it.
I didn’t even know it when they beat me up.
When will I wake up
so I can look for another drink?”
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