Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat.
Parallel translations
- WEB Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat:
- KJV Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh:
- NKJV Do not mix with winebibbers, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
- NASB Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat;
- NLT Do not carouse with drunkards or feast with gluttons,
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Do not keep company with those who drink too much or indulge gluttonously.
Overview
Wisdom warns against the companionship and habits of the drunkard and glutton, where appetite rules over self-control. Such excess marks a life governed by craving rather than discipline. Scripture calls believers instead to sobriety and self-control, being filled with the Spirit rather than with excess (Eph. 5:18).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Luke 21:34But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Eph 5:18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
- Rom 13:13Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
- Isa 5:22Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,
- Prov 28:7A discerning son keeps the law, but a companion of gluttons disgraces his father.
- Isa 22:13But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”
- Isa 5:11Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
- 1 Pet 4:3–4For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.
- Luke 15:13After a few days, the younger son got everything together and journeyed to a distant country, where he squandered his wealth in wild living.
- Matt 24:49And he begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards.
- Prov 23:29–35Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes?
- Prov 31:6–7Give strong drink to one who is perishing, and wine to the bitter in soul.
- Luke 16:19Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor.
- Prov 20:1Wine is a mocker, strong drink is a brawler, and whoever is led astray by them is not wise.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Wisdom personified, with God before creation and the agent of all things, anticipates Christ 'in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom' — the wisdom of God made flesh.
How Proverbs 23:20 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.