If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.
Parallel translations
- WEB Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it.
- KJV Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
- NKJV Have you found honey? Eat only as much as you need, Lest you be filled with it and vomit.
- NASB Have you found honey? Eat only what you need, So that you do not have it in excess and vomit it.
- NLT Do you like honey? Don’t eat too much, or it will make you sick!
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
Enjoy honey in moderation, for too much will make you sick. Even good things must be enjoyed with restraint.
Overview
Honey is good, yet overindulgence brings harm, teaching the wisdom of moderation and self-control. The proverb affirms God's good gifts while warning against excess (1 Cor 6:12). It sets up verse 27's caution that even pursuing honor can be overdone.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Prov 25:27It is not good to eat too much honey or to search out one’s own glory.
- Eph 5:18Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
- Prov 24:13–14Eat honey, my son, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to your taste.
- 1 Sam 14:25–27Then all the troops entered the forest, and there was honey on the ground.
- Isa 7:15By the time He knows enough to reject evil and choose good, He will be eating curds and honey.
- 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.
- Judg 14:8–9When Samson returned later to take her, he left the road to see the lion’s carcass, and in it was a swarm of bees, along with their honey.
- Prov 23:8You will vomit up what little you have eaten and waste your pleasant words.
- Isa 7:22and from the abundance of milk they give, he will eat curds; for all who remain in the land will eat curds and honey.
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 25:16 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.