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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Proverbs 4:17

Evil and violence are their food and drink.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Malice;   Sin;   Wine;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Corruption;   Nation, the;   Violence;   World, the;   The Topic Concordance - Evil;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Bread;   Wine;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Drink;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bread;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Eat;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Wine;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for February 4;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They eat the bread of wickednessand drink the wine of violence.
Hebrew Names Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
King James Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
English Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
New Century Version
They feast on wickedness and cruelty as if they were eating bread and drinking wine.
New English Translation
For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.
Amplified Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.
New American Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
World English Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For they eate the breade of wickednesse, and drinke the wine of violence.
Legacy Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickednessAnd drink the wine of violence.
Berean Standard Bible
since they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Contemporary English Version
Their food and drink are violence and cruelty.
Complete Jewish Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Darby Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
George Lamsa Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Good News Translation
Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them.
Lexham English Bible
For they ate the bread of wickedness, and they drank the wine of violence.
Literal Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For they eate the bred of wickednesse, and drike the wyne of robbery.
American Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Bible in Basic English
The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent acts their drink.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
King James Version (1611)
For they eate the bread of wickednesse, and drinke the wine of violence.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For they eate the bread of wickednes, and drinke the wine of robberie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For these live upon the bread of ungodliness, and are drunken with wine of transgression.
English Revised Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thei eten the breed of vnpite, and drinken the wyn of wickidnesse.
Update Bible Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Webster's Bible Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
New King James Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
New Living Translation
They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence!
New Life Bible
For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing.
New Revised Standard
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For they consume bread gotten by lawlessness, and, wine obtained by violence, they drink.
Douay-Rheims Bible
They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
Revised Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Young's Literal Translation
For they have eaten bread of wickedness, And wine of violence they drink.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.

Contextual Overview

14 Don't take the path of the wicked; don't follow those who do evil. 15 Stay away from that path; don't even go near it. Turn around and go another way. 16 The wicked cannot sleep until they have done something evil. They will not rest until they bring someone down. 17 Evil and violence are their food and drink. 18 The path of those who live right is like the early morning light. It gets brighter and brighter until the full light of day. 19 But the path of the wicked is like a dark night. They trip and fall over what they cannot see.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 9:17, Proverbs 20:17, Job 24:5, Job 24:6, Psalms 14:4, Jeremiah 5:26-28, Ezekiel 22:25-29, Amos 8:4-6, Micah 3:5, Micah 6:12, Zephaniah 3:3, Matthew 23:14, James 5:4, James 5:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:42 - comfort himself 1 Samuel 20:24 - the king 1 Kings 21:15 - Arise Job 34:7 - General Psalms 73:6 - violence Proverbs 13:2 - the soul Isaiah 57:20 - like Micah 7:3 - do

Cross-References

Genesis 5:18
After Jared was 162 years old, he had a son named Enoch.
Genesis 5:22
After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God for 300 years and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:4
Then the people said, "Let's build ourselves a city and a tower that will reach to the sky. Then we will be famous. This will keep us together so that we will not be scattered all over the earth."
2 Samuel 18:18
While Absalom was alive he put up a memorial stone in King's Valley. He said, "I have no son to keep my name alive." So he named that monument after himself. It is called "Absalom's Monument" even today.
Psalms 49:11
The grave will be their new home forever. And how much land they owned will not make any difference.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For they eat the bread of wickedness,.... Either that is gotten by wicked and unlawful means, or wickedness itself is bread unto them; it is that to their minds as bread is to their bodies; they feed upon it with as much eagerness, appetite, gust, and pleasure; it is a sweet morsel to them; it is meat, drink, sleep, and everything to them; they take the highest satisfaction and the utmost delight in it;

and drink the wine of violence: either that which is obtained by rapine and violence; or they as greedily commit such acts of oppression and injury as a man drinks a glass of wine; they do not drink up iniquity like water only, but even like wine, the most generous and delicious. Wherefore all society with such men should be avoided.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The counsel which has come to him, in substance, from his father. Compare it with 2 Samuel 23:2 etc.; 1 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Chronicles 29:17; Psalms 15:1-5; Psalms 24:1-10; Psalms 37:0.

Proverbs 4:7

Or, “The beginning of wisdom is - get wisdom.” To seek is to find, to desire is to obtain.

Proverbs 4:12

The ever-recurring parable of the journey of life. In the way of wisdom the path is clear and open, obstacles disappear; in the quickest activity (“when thou runnest”) there is no risk of falling.

Proverbs 4:13

She is thy life - Another parallel between personified Wisdom in this book and the Incarnate Wisdom in John 1:4.

Proverbs 4:16

A fearful stage of debasement. Sin is the condition without which there can be no repose.

Proverbs 4:17

i. e., Bread and wine gained by unjust deeds. Compare Amos 2:8. A less probable interpretation is, “They eat wickedness as bread, and drink violence as wine.” Compare Job 15:16; Job 34:7.

Proverbs 4:18

Shining ... shineth - The two Hebrew words are different; the first having the sense of bright or clear. The beauty of a cloudless sunshine growing on, shining as it goes, to the full and perfect day, is chosen as the fittest figure of the ever increasing brightness of the good man’s life. Compare the marginal reference.

Proverbs 4:19

Compare our Lord’s teaching John 11:10; John 12:35.

Proverbs 4:20

The teacher speaks again in his own person.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 4:17. For they eat the bread of wickedness — By privately stealing.

And drink the wine of violence. — By highway robbery.


 
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