Have you found honey? Eat as much as is sufficient for you, lest you eat too much, and vomit it.
Parallel translations
- KJV Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.
- BSB If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.
- 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 much honey; nor is it honorable to seek one’s own honor.
- Eph 5:18Don’t be drunken with wine, in which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,
- Prov 24:13–14My son, eat honey, for it is good; the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste:
- 1 Sam 14:25–27All the people came into the forest; and there was honey on the ground.
- Isa 7:15He shall eat butter and honey when he knows to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
- 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.
- Judg 14:8–9After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey.
- Prov 23:8The morsel which you have eaten you shall vomit up, and lose your good words.
- Isa 7:22and it shall happen, that because of the abundance of milk which they shall give he shall eat butter: for everyone will eat butter and honey that is left within the land.
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.