Era 6 · The First KingsProverbs
Proverbs 20: Wine Is a Mocker
Drink, the king's throne, divers weights, the buyer's haggling and the lamp of the LORD
"Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise" (20:1).
"Who can say, I have made my heart clean, I am pure from my sin?" (20:9). A question in a book of confident sayings: no one can claim to be sinless.
"It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer: but when he is gone his way, then he boasteth" (20:14): a scene from the market.
"Say not thou, I will recompense evil; but wait on the LORD, and he shall save thee" (20:22). "The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD, searching all the inward parts of the belly" (20:27).
Wine and strong drink
Wine (yayin) and "strong drink" (shekhar, beer or other fermented drink) were staple drinks in Israel. Wine presses, storage jars and the Samaria ostraca (8th century BC receipts for wine and oil delivered to the royal capital) show their economic importance. The Bible praises wine as God's gift (Psalm 104:15) and warns against drunkenness (Proverbs 20:1; 23:29–35; 31:4–7; Isaiah 5:11). 20:1 personifies wine as a scoffer and beer as a brawler: drink makes people act like fools. It is a warning about intoxication, not a complete biblical rule about alcohol.
| Verse | The saying | Form | What to notice |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20:1 | Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging | Synthetic | Intoxication leads astray (shagah, as in 5:19–23) |
| 20:2 | The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion | Synthetic | Compare 19:12 |
| 20:3 | It is an honour for a man to cease from strife | Antithetic | Every fool "breaks out" in quarrels |
| 20:4 | The sluggard will not plow by reason of the cold | Synthetic | Ploughing in the autumn rains; at harvest he finds nothing |
| 20:5 | Counsel in the heart of man is like deep water | Synthetic | Understanding draws it up like a bucket |
| 20:6 | Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness | Antithetic | "A faithful man who can find?": compare 31:10 |
| 20:7 | The just man walketh in his integrity | Synthetic | His children blessed after him |
| 20:8 | A king that sitteth in the throne of judgment | Synthetic | Winnowing evil with his eyes; compare v. 26 |
| 20:9 | Who can say, I have made my heart clean? | Rhetorical question | Compare 1 Kings 8:46; Ecclesiastes 7:20; Romans 3:23 |
| 20:10 | Divers weights, and divers measures | Synthetic | A stone and a stone, an ephah and an ephah: two sets; repeated in v. 23 |
| 20:11 | Even a child is known by his doings | Synthetic | Character shows early |
| 20:12 | The hearing ear, and the seeing eye | Synthetic | God made both: so use them, and know he hears and sees |
| 20:13 | Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty | Antithetic | Open eyes, enough bread |
| 20:14 | It is naught, it is naught, saith the buyer | Narrative saying | Haggling: the buyer runs down the goods, then boasts of his bargain |
| 20:15 | There is gold, and a multitude of rubies | Antithetic | Knowledgeable lips are rarer |
| 20:16 | Take his garment that is surety for a stranger | Synonymous | Repeated in 27:13; contrast the law of the pledged cloak (Exodus 22:26–27) |
| 20:17 | Bread of deceit is sweet to a man | Antithetic | Then gravel in the mouth |
| 20:18 | Every purpose is established by counsel | Synonymous | "With good advice make war"; compare 24:6 |
| 20:19 | He that goeth about as a talebearer revealeth secrets | Synthetic | Avoid the gossip who opens his mouth wide |
| 20:20 | Whoso curseth his father or his mother | Synthetic | His lamp goes out; compare Exodus 21:17. The library's Greek places 20:20–22 after 20:9 |
| 20:21 | An inheritance may be gotten hastily | Antithetic | Grasped too early, as the prodigal son (Luke 15:12) |
| 20:22 | Say not thou, I will recompense evil | Antithetic | Leave vengeance to God; compare 24:29; Romans 12:17–19 |
| 20:23 | Divers weights are an abomination | Synonymous | Doublet of v. 10 |
| 20:24 | Man's goings are of the LORD | Rhetorical question | Compare 16:9; Jeremiah 10:23 |
| 20:25 | It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy | Synthetic | Rash vows; compare Ecclesiastes 5:4–6 |
| 20:26 | A wise king scattereth the wicked | Synthetic | "The wheel" of the threshing cart: royal justice as winnowing |
| 20:27 | The spirit of man is the candle of the LORD | Synthetic | Neshamah (breath) as God's lamp searching the inner self |
| 20:28 | Mercy and truth preserve the king | Synonymous | Chesed upholds the throne |
| 20:29 | The glory of young men is their strength | Synonymous | Each age has its beauty |
| 20:30 | The blueness of a wound cleanseth away evil | Synonymous | Difficult; physical punishment as moral correction in its ancient setting; not medical or child-rearing advice |
Haggling (20:14)
A rare comic narrative inside a proverb. Ancient Near Eastern markets set prices by bargaining; the buyer's "bad, bad" (ra ra) is a tactic. The saying observes rather than condemns, though it sits beside sayings against dishonest weights (vv. 10, 23).
Greek order in chapter 20
The library's Greek places the equivalent of Hebrew 20:20–22 immediately after 20:9 (its 20:10–12: the lamp of one who curses his parents, the inheritance gained hastily, "do not say I will avenge myself"), so its chapter has 24 verses where the Hebrew has 30 and later verses shift. This is a known feature of Old Greek Proverbs (C check against Rahlfs).
The lamp of the LORD (20:27)
"The spirit (neshamah) of man is the lamp of the LORD": the breath God gave (Genesis 2:7) is the light by which God, or conscience, searches a person's depths. Jewish and Christian writers often used the verse for conscience; the Cambridge Platonists in the 17th century took "the candle of the Lord" as a motto for reason.
What the evidence shows
- The library's Greek places the equivalent of Hebrew 20:20–22 after 20:9.Source: The site's library: Westminster Leningrad Codex, KJV, Clementine Vulgate, Giguet's French of the Greek
- The Samaria ostraca record deliveries of wine and oil in the 8th century BC.
- Proverbs 20:1 forbids all alcohol. It warns against intoxication; other texts praise wine in moderation.
- Proverbs 20:30 is valid advice for raising children today.
Continue the journey
Journey of a PassageProverbs 11:1; 20:10, 23: "A false balance is abomination to the LORD""A false balance is abomination to the LORD: but a just weight is his delight." Honest weights are treated as a religious matter three times in Proverbs (11:1; 20:10, 23; compare 16:11).More from this lesson
Why this matters to the rest of Scripture
- "Recompense to no man evil for evil."
- "There is no man that sinneth not."
- "A perfect and just weight."