Proverbs 23:29-35 Who has woe? who has sorrow? who has contentions? who has babbling? who has wounds without cause? who has redness of eyes?… The ugly sketch given here should be enough to warn all young people against tampering with a vice which may make it a portrait of them. The questions, six in number, fall into three pairs, which deal respectively with the man's feelings of discomfort, his relations with others, and his physical sufferings. Who is the original of this foul picture of degradation and misery? The answer is keenly sarcastic. It is the man who "lingers long over the wine." The loss of the power of self-control is indicated in the term. If we would only realise the "afterwards" of any vice, we should turn from it with dread. The misfortune is, that we do not look an inch beyond the present pleasure. Note three degrading effects of drunkenness. 1. The effect in deceiving the senses and lowering the moral tone. 2. The common sense, the instinct of self-preservation, ordinary prudence, and the sense of the fitness of things, are suspended. 3. The last piece of degradation is given, for greater liveliness of impression, in the form of the drunkard's own soliloquy. He feels himself all over as he begins to rouse from his tipsy sleep, and pities himself that he has been so badly handled. He is waking, but he is not yet himself. As he staggers back into consciousness, the first thing that he thinks of is a renewal of his debauch. The awful tyranny of the evil habit, which has become a diseased second nature, is only too well known. (A. Maclaren, D.D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes? |
    |