Proverbs 23:29 - Meaning and Application

Solomon gives a clear warning against drunkenness here, to support what he had said earlier (Proverbs 23:20). He first warns everyone to stay away from the temptation itself: “Do not look at wine when it is red.” In Canaan, red wine was seen as the best wine, so this warning reaches even the kind that looks most attractive. The point is simple: do not let your eye lead your heart, because what looks pleasant can still be dangerous.

Do not trust your senses more than your reason and your faith. Do not covet what pleases the eye just because you hope it will please the taste. Let sober thinking correct what your senses suggest, and decide against the drink before desire grows. Those who want to stay away from sin must avoid its first steps and its closest temptations.

Solomon then shows why this warning matters, because drunkenness brings many harmful results. “At the last it bites” (Proverbs 23:32). All sin ends in bitterness, and this sin does especially. It bites like a serpent, bringing sickness, ruined health, wasted money, and a troubled conscience. Worst of all, if repentance does not stop it, the cup of drunkenness becomes a cup of God’s wrath.

The writer then names several present and visible harms. Drunkenness leads to fights and quarrels (Proverbs 23:29). “Who has woe? Who has sorrow?” Many people suffer sorrow in this world, but drunkards bring much of it on themselves. When the wine is in, the reason is out, and anger rises fast. That leads to drunken scuffles, reckless arguments, and even lawsuits that begin over a cup.

There is babbling, offensive speech, and harsh words. Then it goes farther, and people receive wounds without cause, because drunk people cannot judge what they are doing. The wounds people get while defending their country are honorable, but wounds received while serving lust are shameful. Even the body shows the damage, with red eyes and weak sight. These harms come from spending too long at the wine (Proverbs 23:30) and from seeking strong drink that is most intoxicating.

Drunkenness also makes people impure and bold in the wrong way (Proverbs 23:33). The eyes become loose and look at strange women with sinful desire, and so adultery enters the heart. The tongue also becomes uncontrolled and speaks foolish, improper things. A drunk person may say things that are silly, confused, and shameful, things he would never say when sober.

It also makes people dull and foolish (Proverbs 23:34). The drunk person does not know where he is or what he is saying and doing. His head swims, his sleep is troubled, and his mind is clouded. He becomes careless about danger, as if he were sleeping on the top of a mast. Even when God’s warnings are before him, he feels little fear, and even when judgment is near, he feels little pain.

Worst of all, the heart grows hard in this sin. Even after all these harms, the drunkard keeps going back to it and resists change. “When shall I awake?” shows how hard it is for him to shake off the grip of his drinking. He struggles out of one drunken stupor only to return to it again, still thirsty for more.

A man who is this far gone has lost all sense of virtue and honor. His conscience is so hardened that he is not ashamed to say, “I will look for it again.” There is little hope for such a person. People who have loved drunkenness keep going after it (Jeremiah 2:25).

This is the sin of adding drunkenness to thirst and chasing strong drink. Anyone who does this should read the warning of their judgment (Deuteronomy 29:19-20) and their misery (Isaiah 5:11). If this is where the sin ends, then we were right to be told to stop at the beginning of it: “Do not look at wine when it is red.”