Proverbs 23:31 - Exposition

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red. Be not attracted by its beautiful appearance. The wine of Palestine was chiefly "red," though what we call white wine was not unknown. The Vulgate flavescit points to the latter. When it giveth his colour in the cup. For "color" the Hebrew has "eye," which refers to the sparkling and gleaming which show themselves in wine poured into the cup. It is as though the cup had an eye which glanced at the drinker with a fascination which he did not resist. When it moveth itself aright. Having warned against the attraction of sight, the moralist now passes to the seduction of taste. Hebrew, when it goeth by the right read. This may refer to its transference from the jar or skin to the drinking cup; but it mere probably alludes to the drinker's throat, and is best translated, "when it glideth down smoothly." Vulgate, ingreditur blande. The wine pleases the palate, and passes over it without roughness or harshness (comp. So Proverbs 7:9 ). The LXX . has enlarged on the original thus: "Be ye not drunk with wine, but converse with just men, and converse in public places ( ἐν περιπάτοις ). For if thou set thine eyes on goblets and cups, afterwards thou shalt walk more bare than a pestle ( γύμνοτερος ὐπέρου ) . " This last expression, pistillo nudior, is a proverb. Regarding the danger of looking on seductive objects, the Arab, in his sententious language, says, "The contemplation of vice is vice."