29 Who has woe ? Who has sorrow ? Who has contentions ? Who has complaining ? Who has wounds without cause ? Who has redness of eyes ? 30 Those who linger long over wine , Those who go to taste mixed wine . 31 Do not look on the wine when it is red , When it sparkles e in the cup , When it goes down smoothly ; 32 At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper . 33 Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will utter perverse things . 34 And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea , Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast . 35 "They struck me, but I did not become ill ; They beat me, but I did not know it. When shall I awake ? I will seek another e drink."
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.