Proverbs 23:29 - Exposition

Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? Hebrew, lemi oi, lemi aboi, where oi and aboi are interjections of pain or grief. So Venetian, τίνι αἲ τίνι φεῦ ; Revised Version margin, Who hath Oh ? who hath Alas ? The Vulgate has stumbled at the second expression, which is an ἄπαξ λεγόμενον , and resolving it into two words, translates, Cujus patri vae? Contentions ; the brawling and strife to which drunkenness leads ( Proverbs 20:1 ). Babbling ; שִׂיחַ ( siach ) is rather "meditation," "sorrowful thought" showing itself in complaining, regret for lost fortune, ruined health, alienated friends. Others render "misery, … penury." St. Jerome's foveae is derived from a different reading. The LXX . has κρίσεις , "lawsuits," ἀηδίαι καὶ λέσχαι , "disgust and gossipings." Wounds without cause; wounds which might have been avoided, the result of quarrels in which a sober man would never have engaged, Redness of eyes. The Hebrew word chakliluth is commonly taken to mean the flashing of eyes occasioned by vinous excitement. The Authorized Version refers it to the bloodshot appearance of a drunkard's eyes, as in Genesis 49:12 , according to the same version. but Delitzsch, Nowack, and many modern commentators consider that the word indicates "dimness of sight," that change in the power of vision when the stimulant reaches the brain. Septuagint, "Whose eyes are livid ( πελιδνοί )?" The effects of intemperance are described in a well known passage of Lucretius, 'De Rer. Nat.,' 3.475, etc.—

" Denique, cor hominum quota vini vis penetravit

Acris, et in venas discessit diditus ardor,

Consequitur gravitas membrorum, praespediuntur

Crura vacillanti, tardescit lingua, madet mens,

Nant oculei; clamor, singultus, jurgia gliscunt. "

We may refer to the article in Jeremy Taylor's 'Holy Living' on "Evil Consequents to Drunkenness," and to Ecclesiasticus 34:25 (31), etc.