Proverbs 23:29-35

²⁹ Who hath woe? Who hath sorrow? Who contentions? Who complaining? Who wounds without cause? Who redness of eyes? ³⁰ —They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to try mixed wine. ³¹ Look not upon the wine when it is red, when it sparkleth in the cup, and goeth down smoothly: ³² at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. ³³ Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things; ³⁴ and thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, and as he that lieth down upon the top of a mast: ³⁵ —''They have smitten me, [and] I am not sore; they have beaten me, [and] I knew it not. When shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.''

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Matthew Henry's Commentary on Proverbs 23:29-35

Commentary on Proverbs 23:29-35

(Read Proverbs 23:29-35)

Solomon warns against drunkenness. Those that would be kept from sin, must keep from all the beginnings of it, and fear coming within reach of its allurements. Foresee the punishment, what it will at last end in, if repentance prevent not. It makes men quarrel. Drunkards wilfully make woe and sorrow for themselves. It makes men impure and insolent. The tongue grows unruly; the heart utters things contrary to reason, religion, and common civility. It stupifies and besots men. They are in danger of death, of damnation; as much exposed as if they slept upon the top of a mast, yet feel secure. They fear no peril when the terrors of the Lord are before them; they feel no pain when the judgments of God are actually upon them. So lost is a drunkard to virtue and honour, so wretchedly is his conscience seared, that he is not ashamed to say, I will seek it again. With good reason we were bid to stop before the beginning. Who that has common sense would contract a habit, or sell himself to a sin, which tends to such guilt and misery, and exposes a man every day to the danger of dying insensible, and awaking in hell? Wisdom seems in these chapters to take up the discourse as at the beginning of the book. They must be considered as the words of Christ to the sinner.