Proverbs 23:32
30 Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks.
31 Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly.
In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
34 You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:
Do read the surrounding verses too, because the context often says more than a single verse.
Compare
- BSB
- In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
- KJV
- At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
- WEB
- In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper.
- ASV
- At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.
- DARBY
- at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
- BLB
- Its end [is] like a serpent—it bites, and like a viper it stings.
- ÅB
- Til sist biter den som en slange og hugger som en huggorm;
- OTB
- for til slutt biter den som en slange og stikker som en hoggorm.
- B1930
- Til sist biter den som en slange og hugger som en huggorm;
Study notes (Tyndale)
Original text and word study
Cross references
Isaiah 28:7–8
These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
Read in contextIsaiah 28:3
The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
Read in contextLuke 16:25–26
But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
Read in contextExodus 7:12
Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.
Read in contextAmos 5:19
It will be like a man who flees from a lion, only to encounter a bear, or who enters his house and rests his hand against the wall, only to be bitten by a snake.
Read in contextIsaiah 59:5
They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
Read in contextJob 20:16
He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
Read in contextJeremiah 8:17
“For behold, I will send snakes among you, vipers that cannot be charmed, and they will bite you,” declares the LORD.
Read in context