PROVERBS CHAPTER 23.
Because of the bad effects of drunkenness, the admonition is spoken: v. 31. Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, observing its tempting color with longing eyes, when it giveth his color in the cup, literally, “when it showeth its eye,” in an inviting sparkle, when it moveth itself aright, when it glides down the throat smoothly and pleasantly.
V. 32. At the last it biteth like a serpent, its ruinous and destructive influence becoming evident afterward, and stingeth like an adder, whose venom had a most deadly effect.
V. 33. Thine eyes, under the influence of the liquor, as it clouds the senses, shall behold strange women, rather, strange things, all objects being doubled, or uncertain, or swaying, in the vision of the drunken man, and thine heart shall utter perverse things, foolish talk.
V. 34. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea, down in its depths, unconscious of his surroundings, or as he that lieth upon the top of a mast, asleep in a most perilous position, reeling, staggering to and fro, in momentary danger of being hurled into the waves.
V. 35. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, the language of the drunken man being well imitated, and I was not sick, he did not feel the pain of it; they have beaten me, and I felt it not, he was not aware of it; when shall I awake? He is anxious to get over the effect of the present debauch. I will seek it yet again; for he who is addicted to the vice of intemperance is bound as with chains, he is a willing slave.
The entire description is remarkably true to life and is intended to fill the reader with the deepest aversion and loathing for the sin of drunkenness, which changes men into brute beasts and often degrades them even below the level of animals.