Bible Strands
Proverbs 23:33
Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will utter perversities.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The speaker addresses a listener who has consumed wine, describing the immediate cognitive collapse that follows the physical consequences detailed in the preceding verse. The warning targets the moment when intoxication overrides rational judgment.
The words — The Hebrew זָר֑וֹת (za.Rot) literally means "strange things," describing the distorted visual perception of the drinker. The term תַּהְפֻּכֽוֹת (tah.pu.Khot) translates to "perverse things," indicating the corrupted speech that issues from the heart.
The thread — This warning against distorted perception and corrupted speech echoes in Proverbs 2:12, which warns against men who speak perversity, and Proverbs 31:5, which cautions rulers against drinking to the point of forgetting decreed justice. Jude 1:12 further parallels this theme by condemning those who shamelessly feast while shepherding only themselves.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that intoxication directly warps both sight and speech, making it impossible to discern truth or exercise sound judgment. A reader must treat the cognitive effects of alcohol as a reliable indicator of its danger, not merely its physical consequences.
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
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Cross-references
- Jude 1:12 These men are hidden reefs in your love feasts, shamelessly feasting with you but shepherding only themselves. They are clouds without water, carried along by the wind; fruitless trees in autumn, twice dead after being uprooted.
- Proverbs 2:12 to deliver you from the way of evil, from the man who speaks perversity,
- Proverbs 31:5 lest they drink and forget what is decreed, depriving all the oppressed of justice.
- Hosea 7:5 The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him.
- Genesis 19:32 Come, let us get our father drunk with wine so we can sleep with him and preserve his line.”
- Psalms 69:12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.
- Daniel 5:4 As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.