Proverbs 4:17
New International Version
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!

English Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

Berean Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

King James Bible
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 American Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

NASB 1995
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.

NASB 1977
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

Legacy Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.

Amplified Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.

Christian Standard Bible
They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

American Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Because their food is the food of evil and they drink the wine of depravity.

Brenton Septuagint Translation
For these live upon the bread of ungodliness, and are drunken with wine of transgression.

Contemporary English Version
Their food and drink are cruelty and wickedness.

Douay-Rheims Bible
They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.

English Revised Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
They eat food obtained through wrongdoing and drink wine obtained through violence.

Good News Translation
Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them.

International Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and they drink the wine of violence.

JPS Tanakh 1917
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

Literal Standard Version
For they have eaten bread of wickedness, | And they drink wine of violence.

Majority Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

New American Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

NET Bible
For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.

New Revised Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

New Heart English Bible
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.

World English Bible
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.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
A Father's Instruction
16For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; they are deprived of slumber until they make someone fall. 17For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence. 18The path of the righteous is like the first gleam of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.…

Cross References
Proverbs 13:2
From the fruit of his lips a man enjoys good things, but the desire of the faithless is violence.

Micah 7:3
Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.


Treasury of Scripture

For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.

Proverbs 9:17
Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.

Proverbs 20:17
Bread of deceit is sweet to a man; but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel.

Job 24:5,6
Behold, as wild asses in the desert, go they forth to their work; rising betimes for a prey: the wilderness yieldeth food for them and for their children…

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Acts Bread Drink Eat Eaten Evil-Doing Food Violence Violent Wickedness Wine
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Acts Bread Drink Eat Eaten Evil-Doing Food Violence Violent Wickedness Wine
Proverbs 4
1. persuades to wisdom
14. and to show wickedness
20. He exhorts to sanctification














(17) The bread of wickedness.--i.e., acquired by wickedness, as (Proverbs 10:2) "treasures of wickedness."

Verse 17. - For (ki, equivalent to the Greek γὰρ) is here explanatory. It serves not so much to introduce another independent statement, as one which accounts for the statement made in the preceding verse, that the wicked sleep not unless they have done mischief, i.e. it states the reason why they are so conditioned. There is no comparison expressed in the original, as the rendering adopted by Schultens and others implies, "For wickedness do they eat as bread, and violence do they drink as wine," which is evidently based on Job 15:16, "Which drinketh up iniquity like water," and Job 34:7, "Who drinketh up scorning like water." The literal rendering is, for they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence do they drink. The bread of wickedness (lekhem resha) is not bread which consists in wickedness, but bread which is obtained by wickedness, just as the wine of violence (yiyin khamasim) is not the wine which produces violence, but the wine that is procured by violent dee,is. Their support, what they eat and drink, is obtained by wickedness and injustice. They live by wrong. For such expressions as "the bread of wickedness" and "the wine of violence," cf. Deuteronomy 16:3, "the bread of affliction;" Psalm 127:2, "the bread of sorrows;" and Amos 2:8, "the wine of the condemned." There is a charade of tense in the verbs, the first being perfect, "they have eaten," and the second future, "they shall drink," which Delitzsch explains as representing the twofold act - first eating the bread, and then washing it down with wine.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
since
כִּ֣י (kî)
Conjunction
Strong's 3588: A relative conjunction

they eat
לָ֭חֲמוּ (lā·ḥă·mū)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person common plural
Strong's 3898: To feed on, to consume, to battle

the bread
לֶ֣חֶם (le·ḥem)
Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3899: Food, bread, grain

of wickedness
רֶ֑שַׁע (re·ša‘)
Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 7562: Wickedness

and drink
יִשְׁתּֽוּ׃ (yiš·tū)
Verb - Qal - Imperfect - third person masculine plural
Strong's 8354: To imbibe

the wine
וְיֵ֖ין (wə·yên)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3196: Wine, intoxication

of violence.
חֲמָסִ֣ים (ḥă·mā·sîm)
Noun - masculine plural
Strong's 2555: Violence, wrong, by meton, unjust gain


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OT Poetry: Proverbs 4:17 For they eat the bread of wickedness (Prov. Pro Pr)
Proverbs 4:16
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