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Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
Proverbs 23:33 · Berean Standard Bible
Parallel translations
  • WEB Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.
  • KJV Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
  • NKJV Your eyes will see strange things, And your heart will utter perverse things.
  • NASB Your eyes will see strange things And your mind will say perverse things.
  • NLT You will see hallucinations, and you will say crazy things.

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

Drunkenness distorts perception, making the mind see and imagine confusing things.

Overview

Excess wine corrupts judgment and stirs disordered thoughts and perverse impulses. The intoxicated mind loses its grip on reality and on moral clarity. This loss of sober-mindedness is precisely what Scripture warns against, calling believers to keep clear minds for prayer and watchfulness (1 Pet. 4:7; 5:8).

Cross-references & the web

Cross-references · 7

  • Jude 1:12–13These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
  • Prov 2:12to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,
  • Prov 31:5lest they drink and forget what is decreed, depriving all the oppressed of justice.
  • Hos 7:5The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.
  • Gen 19:32–38Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.”
  • Ps 69:12Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.
  • Dan 5:4As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

Themes, concepts, people & topics

Topics (2)

Resources, by level

Commentaries & study tools

  • VideoBibleProject — Proverbs videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.

  • VideoWatch teaching on Proverbs 23:33YouTube · Lay · Free

    Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.

  • CommentaryEnduring Word — verse-by-verseDavid Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical

    Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.

  • CommentaryClassic commentaries for this verseBibleHub (20+ works) · Pastoral · Free

    Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.

  • CommentaryMatthew Henry on ProverbsMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical

    The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).

  • ReferenceInterlinear, lexicon & Strong'sBlue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free

    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 23:33 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.