Proverbs 23:30

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(30) They that go to seek mixed wine.—Or, To test; to see whether it is to their taste. The wines of the ancients were not generally drunk pure, but diluted with water or flavoured with spices. (See above on Proverbs 9:2.)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

23:29-35 Solomon warns against drunkenness. Those that would be kept from sin, must keep from all the beginnings of it, and fear coming within reach of its allurements. Foresee the punishment, what it will at last end in, if repentance prevent not. It makes men quarrel. Drunkards wilfully make woe and sorrow for themselves. It makes men impure and insolent. The tongue grows unruly; the heart utters things contrary to reason, religion, and common civility. It stupifies and besots men. They are in danger of death, of damnation; as much exposed as if they slept upon the top of a mast, yet feel secure. They fear no peril when the terrors of the Lord are before them; they feel no pain when the judgments of God are actually upon them. So lost is a drunkard to virtue and honour, so wretchedly is his conscience seared, that he is not ashamed to say, I will seek it again. With good reason we were bid to stop before the beginning. Who that has common sense would contract a habit, or sell himself to a sin, which tends to such guilt and misery, and exposes a man every day to the danger of dying insensible, and awaking in hell? Wisdom seems in these chapters to take up the discourse as at the beginning of the book. They must be considered as the words of Christ to the sinner.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Mixed wine - Wine flavored with aromatic spices, that increase its stimulating properties Isaiah 5:22. There is a touch of sarcasm in "go to seek." The word, elsewhere used of diligent search after knowledge Proverbs 25:2; Job 11:7; Psalm 139:1, is used here of the investigations of connoisseurs in wine meeting to test its qualities.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

29, 30. This picture is often sadly realized now.

mixed wine—(Compare Pr 9:2; Isa 5:11).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Either mixed with water, or with other ingredients, to make it strong and delicious. Heb. mixture; mixed drinks of several sorts suited to their palates.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

They that tarry long at the wine,.... At drinking it. Do not care to stir from it when at it; spend whole days and nights in it, and are overcome by it, and so bring upon them all the above evils;

they that go to seek mixed wine, not wine mixed with water, as used commonly by temperate people in hot countries; but either mixed with spices, to make it more palatable, or with different sorts of wine, some very strong, and more heady and intoxicating; or mere wine meant; wine "poured out", as the word (q) signifies, where there is plenty of it; and such as are given to wine go and seek out such places, and where the best is to be had. So the Targum,

"they go and seek the house of mixture, or mixed wine;''

or, as the Syriac version,

"the house of feasting;''

and so the Arabic:

"where there are junketing and drinking bouts,''

as the Septuagint.

(q) "calicibus epotandi", V. L.

Geneva Study Bible

They that tarry long at the wine; they that go {n} to seek mixed wine.

(n) Who by art make wine stronger and more pleasant.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

30. seek] There is a touch of irony (non caret sale, Maur.) in the use of a word in such a connection, which is used elsewhere of the diligent search for wisdom (Job 28:27), or other noble objects (Psalm 139:1).

mixt] i.e. with spices, Proverbs 9:2; Isaiah 5:22.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 30. - The answer to the above searching questions is here given. They that tarry long at the wine (Isaiah 5:11), who sit till late hours drinking. They that go to seek mixed wine; i.e. go to the wine house, place of revelry, where they may taste and give their opinion upon "mixed wine," mimsak, wine mingled with certain spices or aromatic substances, or else simply with water, as it was too luscious to be drunk undiluted (see on Proverbs 9:2). Septuagint, "those who hunt out where carousals are taking place." Proverbs 23:30

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

The author passes from the sin of uncleanness to that of drunkenness; they are nearly related, for drunkenness excites fleshly lust; and to wallow with delight in the mire of sensuality, a man, created in the image of God, must first brutalize himself by intoxication. The Mashal in the number of its lines passes beyond the limits of the distich, and becomes a Mashal ode.

29 Whose is woe? Whose is grief?

     Whose are contentions, whose trouble, whose wounds without cause?

     Whose dimness of eyes?

30 Theirs, who sit late at the wine,

     Who turn in to taste mixed wine.

31 Look not on the wine as it sparkleth red,

     As it showeth its gleam in the cup,

     Glideth down with ease.

32 The end of it is that it biteth like a serpent,

     And stingeth like a basilisk.

33 Thine eyes shall see strange things,

     And thine heart shall speak perverse things;

34 And thou art as one lying in the heart of the sea,

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