Bible Strands
Proverbs 23:32
In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The sage of Proverbs addresses a young listener warning against the initial allure of alcohol. The warning occurs immediately after describing how wine appears red, sparkles, and goes down smoothly.
The words — The Hebrew יִשָּׁ֑ךְ (yi.Shakh) means "it will bite," paired with יַפְרִֽשׁ (yaf.Rish) meaning "it will sting." These verbs frame the delayed consequence as a sudden, venomous attack.
The thread — This pattern of delayed harm appears in Isaiah 28:3 and Isaiah 28:7, where wine and strong drink cause leaders to stagger and reel. The New Testament echoes this trajectory in Luke 16:25 through the contrast between present pleasure and future reckoning.
Why it lands — The text demands a reader to reject immediate sensory gratification by acknowledging its inevitable destructive outcome. It requires a shift in focus from the cup's appearance to its final result.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
At the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 28:3 The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards will be trampled underfoot.
- Isaiah 28:7 These also stagger from wine and stumble from strong drink: Priests and prophets reel from strong drink and are befuddled by wine. They stumble because of strong drink, muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.
- Luke 16:25 But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony.
- Exodus 7:5 And the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD, when I stretch out My hand against Egypt and bring the Israelites out from among them.”
- Exodus 7:12 Each one threw down his staff, and it became a serpent. But Aaron’s staff swallowed up the other staffs.
- Job 20:16 He will suck the poison of cobras; the fangs of a viper will kill him.
- Proverbs 5:11 At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent,
- Ecclesiastes 10:8 He who digs a pit may fall into it, and he who breaches a wall may be bitten by a snake.
- Isaiah 59:5 They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
- Jeremiah 5:31 The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?