“Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. "They struck me," you will say, "but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink."”
Introduction
This short but vivid passage from Proverbs 23 paints a pastoral warning about the dangers of intoxication and the slow seduction of excess. With a string of urgent questions and piercing images, the writer invites the reader to recognize the visible and hidden consequences of long indulgence in wine. The tone is both practical and moral, rooted in care for family, community, and personal integrity.
Historical-Cultural Context and Authorship
Proverbs belongs to the wisdom tradition of ancient Israel and has long been associated with Solomon as the archetypal wise teacher, though the book is a collection compiled over centuries and likely edited in the postexilic period. In the ancient Near East wine and fermented drinks were common in daily life, ritual, and hospitality. That familiarity makes the warning especially pointed: the problem is not wine per se but the habitual overindulgence that undermines judgment, relationships, and health. Wisdom literature often uses rhetorical questions, memorable similes, and sharp contrasts to teach prudence and moral discernment, and this passage follows that pattern.
Explanation and Meaning of the Text
The passage opens with a series of rhetorical questions naming the consequences of prolonged drinking: woe, sorrow, strife, complaint, unexplained wounds, and bloodshot eyes. These are concrete signs that the wise speaker expects the listener to recognize. ‘‘Those who tarry long over wine’’ describes the habitual lingerer, the one who makes drinking an ongoing practice rather than a rare occasion. The admonition not to gaze at wine when it is red and sparkling is a warning about temptation and allure. The drink is attractive in appearance and smooth going down, yet the writer insists that its eventual effect is harmful: it ‘‘bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.ʼ
The following verses describe the inner and social effects of intoxication. Vision becomes distorted and the heart speaks perversely, indicating both hallucination and moral confusion. The similes of lying down in the midst of the sea or on the top of a mast suggest disorientation and exposure to danger, images of someone who has lost the solid ground of clear judgment. The speaker who insists he was not hurt, even as others strike him, exemplifies denial and numbed conscience. The final line, the cry for yet another drink, reveals dependence and an impossible cycle: the very thing sought for relief becomes the cause of misery.
Taken in its context, the proverb is not merely a health lecture but a moral and relational counsel. It shows how a small, socially accepted practice can become an ensnaring habit that wounds self and others, disrupts speech and conduct, and hides the truth from the one most affected. For readers in a Christian imagination, it also resonates with biblical calls to sobriety of mind and heart and to love that protects neighbor and family from harm.
Devotional
If you or someone you love recognizes these signs, hear this passage first as compassion rather than condemnation. Wisdom speaks to wake the sleeper and to restore the one who has strayed from sound judgment. God meets us in our confusion and shame, calling us back to life that is steady and clear. The vivid images in Proverbs are meant to open our eyes to reality so that we might turn, with humility, toward healing and renewed relationship.
Practically, commit one small step today: name the pattern, seek counsel from a trusted friend or pastor, and bring the struggle into prayer and community. Pray for courage to accept help, for patience in recovery, and for the Spirit to renew mind and heart. Remember that repentance is not a single act but a pathway walked with grace, and the God who warns also sustains and restores.