You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:
Parallel translations
- WEB Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:
- KJV Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
- NKJV Yes, you will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, Or like one who lies at the top of the mast, saying:
- NASB And you will be like one who lies down in the middle of the sea, Or like one who lies down on the top of a mast.
- NLT You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea, clinging to a swaying mast.
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
The drunkard is as unstable and senseless as one lying amid heaving seas or atop a ship's rigging.
Overview
These images capture the dizziness, danger, and helplessness of intoxication. Like a sailor tossed on the waves or perched on the mast, the drunkard has lost all stability. The picture warns that surrendering to drink is to abandon the steady footing wisdom provides.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 1 Th 5:2–7For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
- 1 Sam 30:16–17So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.
- 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.
- Matt 24:38For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
- 2 Sam 13:28Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- Luke 17:27–29People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
- 1 Kgs 16:9However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.
- Joel 1:5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.
- 1 Sam 25:33–38Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
- Exod 15:8At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- 1 Kgs 20:16–22They marched out at noon while Ben-hadad and the 32 kings allied with him were in their tents getting drunk.
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 23:34 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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