Lectionary Calendar
Monday, April 28th, 2025
the Second Week after Easter
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

King James Version

Proverbs 23:32

At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Abstinence, Total;   Adder;   Asp;   Drunkenness;   Serpent;   Wine;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Adders;   Serpents;   Social Duties;   Temperance;   Temperance-Intemperance;   The Topic Concordance - Drunkenness;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Asp, or Adder;   Chastity;   Reptiles;   Serpents;   Wine;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Wine;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Grapes;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Disease;   Charles Buck Theological Dictionary - Heart;   Pardon;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Cockatrice;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Serpent;   Wine and Strong Drink;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Adder;   Cockatrice;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Adder;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Ad'der;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Sting (and forms);   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Adder;   Cockatrice;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Adder;   Basilisk;   Drunkenness;   Education;   Proverbs, Book of;   Serpent;   Sting;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Basilisk;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
In the end it bites like a snakeand stings like a viper.
Hebrew Names Version
At the last it bites like a snake, And poisons like a viper.
English Standard Version
In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
New American Standard Bible
In the end it bites like a snake And stings like a viper.
New Century Version
Later it bites like a snake with poison in its fangs.
Amplified Bible
At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.
World English Bible
At the last it bites like a snake, And poisons like a viper.
Geneva Bible (1587)
In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.
Legacy Standard Bible
At the end—like a serpent it bites,And like a viper it stings.
Berean Standard Bible
In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
Contemporary English Version
but later it bites like a poisonous snake.
Complete Jewish Bible
but in the end, it bites like a serpent — yes, it strikes like a poisonous snake.
Darby Translation
at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Easy-to-Read Version
But in the end, it will bite like a snake.
George Lamsa Translation
For at the last it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder.
Good News Translation
The next morning you will feel as if you had been bitten by a poisonous snake.
Lexham English Bible
In the end, it will bite like a serpent, and it will sting like an adder.
Literal Translation
at its last it bites like a snake, and it stings like an adder.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
It goeth downe softly, but at the last it byteth like a serpet, and styngeth as an Adder.
American Standard Version
At the last it biteth like a serpent, And stingeth like an adder.
Bible in Basic English
In the end, its bite is like that of a snake, its wound like the wound of a poison-snake.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like a basilisk.
King James Version (1611)
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
It goeth downe sweetely, but at the last it byteth like a serpent, and stingeth lyke an adder.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
But at last such a one stretches himself out as one smitten by a serpent, and venom is diffused through him as by a horned serpent.
English Revised Version
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
It entrith swetli, but at the laste it schal bite as an eddre doith, and as a cocatrice it schal schede abrood venyms.
Update Bible Version
At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like an adder.
Webster's Bible Translation
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
New English Translation
Afterward it bites like a snake, and stings like a viper.
New King James Version
At the last it bites like a serpent, And stings like a viper.
New Living Translation
For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake; it stings like a viper.
New Life Bible
In the end it bites like a snake. It stings like the bite of a snake with poison.
New Revised Standard
At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Its after effect, is that, like a serpent, it biteth, and, like a viper, it doth sting.
Douay-Rheims Bible
But in the end, it will bite like a snake, and will spread abroad poison like a basilisk.
Revised Standard Version
At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder.
Young's Literal Translation
Its latter end -- as a serpent it biteth, And as a basilisk it stingeth.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
At the last it bites like a serpent And stings like a viper.

Contextual Overview

29 Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? 30 They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine. 31 Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright. 32 At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder. 33 Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things. 34 Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast. 35 They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

At: Proverbs 5:11, Isaiah 28:3, Isaiah 28:7, Isaiah 28:8, Jeremiah 5:31, Exodus 7:5, Exodus 7:6, Exodus 7:12, Luke 16:25, Luke 16:26, Romans 6:21

biteth: Ecclesiastes 10:8, Jeremiah 8:17, Amos 5:19, Amos 9:3

an adder: or, a cockatrice, Isaiah 59:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 9:21 - and was Psalms 140:3 - like a serpent Proverbs 9:17 - Stolen Isaiah 5:11 - inflame

Gill's Notes on the Bible

At the last it biteth like a serpent,.... Though it goes down sweetly, yet it leaves a sting behind it, intemperately drank; a nausea in the stomach, a stink in the breath, pains and giddiness in the head, weakness in the eyes, trembling in the members of the body, palsy, gout, and other distempers, very painful and grievous to be bore; and, what is worse, if the conscience is awakened, sharp and cutting reflections there; and, without true repentance, torments intolerable in the world to come;

and stingeth like an adder; or "spreads" u, or separates and scatters; that is, its poison. So the Vulgate Latin version, "diffuseth poisons as a basilisk", or "cockatrice"; the Targum and Syriac version,

"as a serpent which flies;''

it signifies the same as before.

u יפרש "jecur diffindet", Schultens.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Another continuous exhortation rather than a collection of maxims.

Proverbs 23:16

The teacher rejoices when the disciple’s heart Proverbs 23:15 receives wisdom, and yet more when his lips can utter it.

Reins - See Job 19:27 note.

Proverbs 23:17

Envy sinners - Compare in Psalms 37:1; Psalms 73:3; the feeling which looks half-longingly at the prosperity of evil doers. Some connect the verb “envy” with the second clause, “envy not sinners, but envy, emulate, the fear of the Lord.”

Proverbs 23:18

Or, For if there is an end (hereafter), thine expectations shall not be cut off. There is an implied confidence in immortality.

Proverbs 23:20

Riotous eaters of flesh - The word is the same as “glutton” in Proverbs 23:21 and Deuteronomy 21:20.

Proverbs 23:21

The three forms of evil that destroy reputation and tempt to waste are brought together.

Drowsiness - Specially the drunken sleep, heavy and confused.

Proverbs 23:26

Observe - Another reading gives, “let thine eyes delight in my ways.”

Proverbs 23:28

As for a prey - Better as in the margin.

The transgressors - Better, the treacherous,” those that attack men treacherously.

Proverbs 23:29

Woe ... sorrow - The words in the original are interjections, probably expressing distress. The sharp touch of the satirist reproduces the actual inarticulate utterances of drunkenness.

Proverbs 23:30

Mixed wine - Wine flavored with aromatic spices, that increase its stimulating properties Isaiah 5:22. There is a touch of sarcasm in “go to seek.” The word, elsewhere used of diligent search after knowledge Proverbs 25:2; Job 11:7; Psalms 139:1, is used here of the investigations of connoisseurs in wine meeting to test its qualities.

Proverbs 23:31

His color - literally, “its eye,” the clear brightness, or the beaded bubbles on which the wine drinker looks with complacency.

It moveth itself aright - The Hebrew word describes the pellucid stream flowing pleasantly from the wineskin or jug into the goblet or the throat (compare Song of Solomon 7:9), rather than a sparkling wine.

Proverbs 23:32

Adder - Said to be the Cerastes, or horned snake.

Proverbs 23:34

The passage is interesting, as showing the increased familiarity of Israelites with the experiences of sea life (compare Psalms 104:25-26; Psalms 107:23-30).

In the midst of the sea - i. e., When the ship is in the trough of the sea and the man is on the deck. The second clause varies the form of danger, the man is in the “cradle” at the top of the mast, and sleeps there, regardless of the danger.

Proverbs 23:35

The picture ends with the words of the drunkard on waking from his sleep. Unconscious of the excesses of the night, his first thought is to return to his old habit.

When shall I awake ... - Better, when I shall awake I will seek it yet again.


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile