Proverbs 20 · The Lantern

Wine Is a Mocker

Wine is a scoffer, strong drink is clamorous, and no one who reels in it is wise.

As it is said, "The priest and the prophet were deranged by wine." "Wine is licentious, drunkenness is bold. The person who indulges in them will not be exempt from sin." Wine is a good thing if you drink it with moderation.

Those who eat the heavenly bread become heavenly without doubt! Wine teaches us in that it makes those who are familiar with it like itself: for it hates those who are fond of it and is intoxicating and maddening and a mocker of them.

"Wine is a luxurious thing, and drunkenness is tumultuous; whoever delights in these will not be wise." And elsewhere: "Wine and women make the wise to fall away and will reprove the sensible." You have a ready example in that Solomon, who fell away on account of women even to the worship of idolatry, who nevertheless was filled with wisdom like a river.

The terror of a king is like the growling of a young lion; one who enrages him misses his own soul.

It is honor for a man to sit apart from a quarrel, but every stubborn fool breaks out.

From winter the sluggard does not plow; he asks at harvest and there is nothing.

Counsel in the heart of a man is deep water, but a man of insight draws it out.

Many a man calls out his own loyal love, but a faithful man — who can find?

A righteous man walks about in his integrity; happy are his sons after him.

A king sitting on the throne of judgment scatters all evil with his eyes.

Who can say, “I have cleansed my heart; I am pure from my sin”?

I hold that in the Proverbs of Solomon these two kinds of judgment (I speak of the one that concerns our faith and knowledge, and of the one that concerns our conduct) are presented by Solomon in the following words: "Who will boast that he has a pure heart?

"Who can say," writes the wise man, "I have made my heart clean"? The stars are not pure in the Lord's sight; how much less people whose whole life is one long temptation.

Who can say, My heart is clean, I am pure from sin? It should be noted that He does not say, Who can have a clean heart and be pure from sin? But He says, Who can say, My heart is clean, I am pure from sin? Because there are those who, by the grace of God, can have according to human measure the purity of heart and work.

Stone and stone, ephah and ephah — both of them are an abomination to the LORD.

If there were two persons to be judged, one being given more consideration and the other less consideration, with a judge standing between both and making them equal by depriving only the one who has more than enough, the judge can be said to have failed to the extent that the adjudged party is injured.

And the giver of the law similarly forbids the same thing, saying: "Let the balance be just and the weights equal, the bushel just and the sextarius equal," and Solomon also gives a like opinion on this matter: "Great and small weights and double measures are both unclean before the Lord, and one who uses them shall be hindered in his contrivances." Further not only in the way…

Diverse weights, diverse measures, etc. For a man with diverse weights in his house has different measures, that is he measures differently for himself and for his neighbor, who always seeks in his own deeds what can be praised, but in others' deeds what can be blamed.

Even a young man makes himself known by his deeds, whether his work is pure and whether it is upright.

A hearing ear and a seeing eye — the LORD has made both of them.

Do not love sleep, lest you become poor; open your eyes and be filled with bread.

“Bad, bad,” says the buyer, but when he goes his way, then he boasts.

There is gold and an abundance of corals, but lips of knowledge are a precious vessel.

Take his garment, for he has gone surety for a stranger; and for a foreign woman, hold him in pledge.

Bread of falsehood is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel.

Plans are established by counsel, and make war by guidance.

One who goes about as a slanderer uncovers a secret, so do not mix with one who opens wide his lips.

One who curses his father and his mother — his lamp will go out in the pupil of darkness.

An inheritance gotten hastily at the first — its end will not be blessed.

Do not say, “I will repay evil.” Wait for the LORD, and he will save you.

Stone and stone are an abomination to the LORD, and scales of deceit are not good.

The steps of a man are from the LORD; and a human — how can he understand his own way?

"The steps of man are directed by God." A mortal, that is a sinner [as such], cannot [of himself] know the ways of the Lord; in fact, since he is mortal, he has [of yet] neither died nor lived with Christ. Therefore in the journey to the kingdom of heaven the steps of man are directed by the Lord.

Do they suppose, accordingly, that God moves the wills of those whom he has wished to the creation of earthly kingdoms but that he does not move them to the attainment of a heavenly kingdom?

Who among men can understand his way? In this, he says, it is manifestly clear that whatever good anyone has, he does not have it from himself, but by the grace of God, which neither by his own free will can he understand what he will be, nor how or how long he will live.

It is a snare for a man to say rashly, “Holy!” and after vows to seek.

A wise king scatters the wicked and turns the wheel over them.

The breath of a man is the lamp of the LORD, searching all the chambers of the belly.

Loyal love and faithfulness guard a king, and he upholds his throne by loyal love.

The beauty of young men is their strength, and the splendor of the old is gray hair.

Wounding blows scour away evil, and blows the chambers of the belly.

Proverbs20

Wine Is a Mocker