Bible Strands
Proverbs 23:34
You will be like one sleeping on the high seas or lying on the top of a mast:
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The wisdom speaker addresses a person tempted by wine, interrupting the description of intoxication to depict the resulting physical and mental disorientation.
The words — `שֹׁכֵב` (sho.Khev) translates literally as "lies down" or "sleeping," while `חִבֵּל` (chi.Bel) means "mast" or "rope," describing precarious positions.
The thread — This imagery of drunken disorientation parallels the unguarded feasting in 1 Samuel 30:16 and 2 Samuel 13:28, while the sudden collapse mirrors the unpreparedness warned of in 1 Thessalonians 5:2.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that intoxication distorts perception and delays necessary response, urging readers to reject the false comfort of drunkenness before it paralyzes judgment.
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
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast.
Cross-references
- 1 Thessalonians 5:2 For you are fully aware that the Day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.
- 1 Samuel 30:16 So he led David down, and there were the Amalekites spread out over all the land, eating, drinking, and celebrating the great amount of plunder they had taken from the land of the Philistines and the land of Judah.
- 2 Samuel 13:28 Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!”
- 1 Kings 16:9 However, while Elah was in Tirzah getting drunk in the house of Arza the steward of his household there, Elah’s servant Zimri, the commander of half his chariots, conspired against him.
- Matthew 24:38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark.
- Luke 17:27 People were eating and drinking, marrying and being given in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
- Luke 21:34 But watch yourselves, or your hearts will be weighed down by dissipation, drunkenness, and the worries of life—and that day will spring upon you suddenly like a snare.
- Exodus 15:8 At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; like a wall the currents stood firm; the depths congealed in the heart of the sea.
- 1 Samuel 25:33 Blessed is your discernment, and blessed are you, because today you kept me from bloodshed and from avenging myself by my own hand.
- Joel 1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep; wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine, for it has been cut off from your mouth.