Proverbs 23:29-35·~1 min
Saying 19
The saying catalogs the woe, strife, wounds, and blurred vision of those who linger over mixed wine, then warns against gazing at its attractive redness because it finally bites like a snake. The drunkard's mind becomes unstable and dissociated, and even after being struck he rises only to seek another drink.
W29ho has woe? Who has sorrow? 30Those who linger over wine, 31Do not gaze at wine while it is red, 32In the end it bites like a snake 33Your eyes will see strange things, 34You will be like one sleeping on the high seas 35“They struck me, but I feel no pain!
Section summaryThe nineteenth saying delivers the chapter's longest warning by asking who suffers the chaos attached to drunkenness and then answering: those who linger over wine. It traces wine's false beauty, snake-like bite, distorted perception, numb self-deception, and compulsive return, exposing intoxication as a cycle of pain masked as pleasure.
Role in the chapterThis section functions as an extended anti-drunkenness instruction. Its work is to unmask the bodily, mental, and moral ruin of intoxication through vivid experiential detail.