Proverbs 23:30

30 It's those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business.

Proverbs 23:30 Meaning and Commentary

Proverbs 23:30

They that tarry long at the wine
At drinking it. Do not care to stir from it when at it; spend whole days and nights in it, and are overcome by it, and so bring upon them all the above evils; they that go to seek mixed wine,
not wine mixed with water, as used commonly by temperate people in hot countries; but either mixed with spices, to make it more palatable, or with different sorts of wine, some very strong, and more heady and intoxicating; or mere wine meant; wine "poured out", as the word F17 signifies, where there is plenty of it; and such as are given to wine go and seek out such places, and where the best is to be had. So the Targum,

``they go and seek the house of mixture, or mixed wine;''
or, as the Syriac version,
``the house of feasting;''
and so the Arabic:
``where there are junketing and drinking bouts,''
as the Septuagint.
FOOTNOTES:

F17 (Komm) "calicibus epotandi", V. L.

Proverbs 23:30 In-Context

28 She'll take you for all you've got; she's worse than a pack of thieves.
29 Who are the people who are always crying the blues? Who do you know who reeks of self-pity? Who keeps getting beat up for no reason at all? Whose eyes are bleary and bloodshot?
30 It's those who spend the night with a bottle, for whom drinking is serious business.
31 Don't judge wine by its label, or its bouquet, or its full-bodied flavor.
32 Judge it rather by the hangover it leaves you with - the splitting headache, the queasy stomach.
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.