In the end it bites like a snake And stings like a viper.
Parallel translations
- WEB In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
- KJV At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
- BSB In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
- NKJV At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
- NLT For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake; it stings like a viper.
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
In the end, wine bites and poisons like a venomous snake.
Overview
The smooth pleasure of drink finally turns deadly, striking like a serpent. The contrast between wine's inviting appearance and its venomous end is the heart of the warning. Sin generally works this way, promising delight but delivering death, which is why Scripture urges fleeing its first allurements (James 1:14-15).
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 14
- Isa 28:7–8They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.
- Luke 16:25–26“But Abraham said, ‘Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish.
- Isa 28:3The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.
- Jer 8:17“For, behold, I will send serpents, adders among you, which will not be charmed; and they shall bite you,” says Yahweh.
- Prov 5:11You will groan at your latter end, when your flesh and your body are consumed,
- Isa 59:5They hatch adders’ eggs, and weave the spider’s web. He who eats of their eggs dies; and that which is crushed breaks out into a viper.
- Eccl 10:8He who digs a pit may fall into it; and whoever breaks through a wall may be bitten by a snake.
- Job 20:16He shall suck cobra venom. The viper’s tongue shall kill him.
- Amos 9:3Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out there; and though they be hidden from my sight in the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent, and it will bite them.
- Amos 5:19As if a man fled from a lion, and a bear met him; Or he went into the house and leaned his hand on the wall, and a snake bit him.
- Exod 7:12For they each cast down their rods, and they became serpents: but Aaron’s rod swallowed up their rods.
- Rom 6:21What fruit then did you have at that time in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
- Exod 7:5–6The Egyptians shall know that I am Yahweh, when I stretch out my hand on Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.”
- Jer 5:31The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 23:32 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
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