29 Who has woe?
Who has sorrow?
Who has strife?
Who has complaints?
Who has needless bruises?
Who has bloodshot eyes? 30 Those who stay long at the wine;
those who go to seek out mixed wine. 31 Don’t look at the 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 things,
and your mind will imagine confusing things. 34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea,
or as he who lies on top of the rigging: 35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt!
They beat me, and I don’t feel it!
When will I wake up? I can do it again.
I can find another.”
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.