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 Assyrians had a fancy that, if a demon saw his own face in a mirror, he could not bear the ugly sight, and would vanish. Unfortunately, vicious men are not so easily frightened, for many a drunkard knows perfectly what a degraded creature he has made himself, and yet is not restrained. But the photograph may deter others from beginning so suicidal a course. The appeal to consequences may not be the highest, but it is legitimate, and ought to be powerful with all rational beings. The consequences here appealed to are exclusively personal ones, there being no reference to the drunkards' miserable homes, to wrecked family blessings, nor even to blasted prospects, and the havoc wrought by drink in pauperising and bringing to rags. What it does to the man himself in body and soul is the portrait painter's theme here. The torrent of questions with which he begins brings out the mental discomfort and bodily mischief consequent on intoxication. The two questions in verse 29B repeat the substance of the' three in A. "Complaining" seems to include "woe" and "sorrow," and "wounds without cause" are the natural results of the "contentions" equally without cause. According to the best and most recent authorities, the bodily symptom here noticed is dulness, not "redness," of eyes, the glazed, unperceiving stare so sadly well known as a sign of intoxication. There are far more grave physical consequences of the habit than that — shattered nerves, shaking hands, knotted livers — but the painter here is thinking rather of the act than of the habit. His answer to his questions comes with emphasis, and has a dash of sad irony in it. What an epitaph for a man: "He was a connoisseur in wines; he did not know much about science or history or philosophy or theology or art or commerce or morality, but he was a perfect master at blending whisky!" A solemn warning follows the etching of the drunkard, which is bitten in on the plate with acid. The wine appeals to the sense of sight, as it gleams in golden cup or crystal goblet, and it appeals also to the sense of taste as "it goeth down smoothly." But it is not done with when it is swallowed, and, like all delights of sense, it has an "afterwards" which is not delightful. "Violent delights have violent ends." In verse 33 we see him in the height of his excitement; in verse 34, in the stupor that follows; in verse 35, in his waking. The first stage is marked by hallucinations and a torrent of vile speech. "Thine eyes shall behold strange things," by which are meant the absurd delusions of the drunkard. Imagination is stimulated, and the senses befooled, by the fumes; the man reels about in a world of his own creating, which has nothing corresponding to it in reality. There is a still more terrible meaning possible to this part of the picture, though probably not the one intended — namely, the frightful visions accompanying delirium tremens, which dog the drunkard's steps, and drive him into paroxysms of terror. Further, his loss of self-control is signalised by the loose speech in which the rank heart pours itself out in "perverse things." There is a strange and awful connection between intoxication and foul words from the depths of the "evil treasure" of the heart. The second stage is that of collapse and stupor. The excitement, of course, ends in that, and the drunkard flings himself down anywhere, utterly careless of danger, and utterly unconscious of his surroundings. He is like a man that "lieth down in the midst of the sea," neither a comfortable nor a safe bed, "or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast," where there is neither room to lie, nor security as the ship rolls, and the uneasy couch rolls still more. He sleeps out his heavy slumbers, and, when he does, he discovers for the first time the bruises and wounds which he has received. But these do not curb the tyrannous appetite which brought them on him. Undeterred by them, he wishes for the complete return of sober consciousness, only that he may renew his debauch. Christ's solemn saying, "Whoso committeth sin is the slave of sin," has no more tragical exemplification than in the miserable drunkard, who can no more resist the craving for drink than he can stop Niagara. (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? |
    |