You will stagger like a sailor tossed at sea, clinging to a swaying 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.
- BSB You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on 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.
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 yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night.
- 1 Sam 30:16–17When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great plunder that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah.
- Luke 21:34“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
- Matt 24:38For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,
- 2 Sam 13:28Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon,’ then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
- Luke 17:27–29They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
- 1 Kgs 16:9His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah;
- Joel 1:5Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
- 1 Sam 25:33–38Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, who have kept me today from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand.
- Exod 15:8With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
- 1 Kgs 20:16–22They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him.
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 23:34 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
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.