and bread eaten in secret is tasty!
The act of eating bread in secret implies engaging in actions that one knows are wrong, yet finds pleasurable. In the cultural context of ancient Israel, sharing meals was a communal activity, and eating in secret suggests a breach of trust and community norms. This secrecy highlights the shame and guilt associated with sin, as seen in John 3:19-20, where people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. The temporary satisfaction of secret sin is contrasted with the lasting fulfillment found in righteousness, as Jesus offers Himself as the Bread of Life in John 6:35, providing true and eternal sustenance.

Proverbs 9:17 begins, “Stolen water is sweet…”.

• The words are placed on the lips of Folly (Proverbs 9:13-18), describing the seductive pull of sin.

• Sin often advertises itself as more pleasurable precisely because it is forbidden, echoing Eve’s temptation in Genesis 3:6 and David’s coveting in 2 Samuel 11:2-4.

• Yet the sweetness is a fleeting illusion. Proverbs 20:17 warns, “Food gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth is full of gravel”.

• God’s open provision—“Drink water from your own cistern” (Proverbs 5:15)—is set against the stolen, underscoring that true satisfaction comes within His boundaries.

• James 1:14-15 reminds us that when desire conceives, “it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is fully grown, gives birth to death”. The “sweet” turns bitter.

The verse continues, “…and bread eaten in secret is tasty!”.

• The secrecy adds to the lure: what cannot be seen feels safer, echoing Job 24:15 where the adulterer waits “till twilight.”

• Darkness, however, never hides from God. Jesus declares, “Everyone practicing evil hates the Light… lest his deeds should be exposed” (John 3:19-20), and Luke 12:2-3 promises every hidden thing will be revealed.

• Sin isolates; it is “bread” eaten alone, contrasting with the shared fellowship God intends (Acts 2:46).

• Proverbs 23:31-32 pictures another enticement—wine “sparkling in the cup” that later “bites like a serpent”—reinforcing that secret indulgence carries painful aftermath.

• Moses chose to suffer with God’s people rather than “enjoy the fleeting pleasure of sin” (Hebrews 11:25). Lasting delight is found in obedience, not concealment.

• Forbidden pleasure advertises itself as sweeter, but its taste turns to gravel.

• Sin thrives on secrecy, yet nothing is truly hidden from the Lord.

• God offers open, lawful satisfaction that brings life; stolen, secret intake ends in death.

• Proverbs 9:17 exposes the lie of illicit delight so we will choose wisdom’s feast (Proverbs 9:1-6) over folly’s deadly banquet (Proverbs 9:18).

Bread eaten in secret.--The same figure is used in Proverbs 30:20.

"Nitimur in vetitum semper, cupimusque negata;
Sic interdictis imminet aeger aquis.' Things easily attained, the possession of which is gotten without effort or danger or breach of restraint, soon pall and cease to charm. To some minds the astuteness and secrecy required for success have an irresistible attraction. Thus St. Augustine relates ('Conf.,' 2:4) how he and some companions committed a theft, not from want and poverty, nor even from the wish to enjoy what was stolen, but simply for the pleasure of thieving and the sin. They robbed a pear tree by night, carried off great loads, which they flung to the pigs, and their only satisfaction was that they were doing what they ought not ("dum tamen fieret a nobis, quod eo liberet quo non liceret"). Septuagint, "Taste ye to your pleasure secret bread, and sweet water of theft." Where water is a precious commodity, as in many pets of Palestine, doubtless thefts were often committed, and persons made free with their neighbor's tank when they could do so undetected, thus sparing their own resources and felicitating themselves on their cleverness. On the metaphorical use of "waters" in Holy Scripture, St. Gregory says, "Waters are sometimes wont to denote the Holy Spirit, sometimes sacred knowledge, sometimes calamity, sometimes drifting peoples, sometimes the minds of those following the faith." He refers to these texts respectively: John 7:38, etc.; Ecclus. 15:3; Psalm 69:1; Revelation 17:15 ("the waters are peoples"); Isaiah 22:20; and he adds, "By water likewise bad knowledge is wont to be designated, as when the woman in Solomon, who bears the type of heresy, charms with crafty persuasion, saying, 'Stolen waters are sweet'" ('Moral.,' 19:9).

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