Buy the Truth, and Do Not Sell It
19 Listen, my son, and be wise, and keep your heart on the right path! 20 Don’t be among ones drinking too much wine, or those who gorge themselves on meat; 21 for the drunkard and the glutton shall become poor; and drowsiness clothes them in rags. 22 Listen to your father who gave you life, and don’t despise your mother when she is old. 23 Buy the truth, and don’t sell it. Get wisdom, discipline, and understanding. 24 The father of the righteous has great joy. Whoever fathers a wise child delights in him. 25 Let your father and your mother be glad! Let her who bore you rejoice! 26 My son, give me your heart; and let your eyes keep in my ways. 27 For a prostitute is a deep pit; and a wayward wife is a narrow well. 28 Yes, she lies in wait like a robber, and increases the unfaithful among men. 29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? 30 Those who stay long at the wine; those who go to seek out mixed wine. 31 Don’t look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. 32 In the end, it bites like a snake, and poisons like a viper. 33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things. 34 Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the middle of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging: 35 “They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don’t feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more.” Proverbs 24 1 Don’t be envious of evil men, neither desire to be with them; 2 for their hearts plot violence and their lips talk about mischief. 3 Through wisdom a house is built; by understanding it is established; 4 by knowledge the rooms are filled with all rare and beautiful treasure. 5 A wise man has great power. A knowledgeable man increases strength, 6 for by wise guidance you wage your war, and victory is in many advisors. 7 Wisdom is too high for a fool. He doesn’t open his mouth in the gate. 8 One who plots to do evil will be called a schemer. 9 The schemes of folly are sin. The mocker is detested by men. 10 If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small. 11 Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! 12 If you say, “Behold, we didn’t know this,” doesn’t he who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, doesn’t he know it? Shall he not give to every man according to his work? 13 My son, eat honey, for it is good, the droppings of the honeycomb, which are sweet to your taste; 14 so you shall know wisdom to be to your soul. If you have found it, then there will be a reward: Your hope will not be cut off. 15 Don’t lay in wait, wicked man, against the habitation of the righteous. Don’t destroy his resting place; 16 for a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again, but the wicked are overthrown by calamity. 17 Don’t rejoice when your enemy falls. Don’t let your heart be glad when he is overthrown, 18 lest Yahweh see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him. 19 Don’t fret yourself because of evildoers, neither be envious of the wicked; 20 for there will be no reward to the evil man. The lamp of the wicked will be snuffed out. 21 My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious, 22 for their calamity will rise suddenly. Who knows what destruction may come from them both?
The section contains the most detailed portrait of a drunk in Scripture, and the most direct command in the book about people being led away to die.
Buy the truth, and don't sell it. Two instructions, and the second is the harder. Truth is to be acquired at cost, and then never traded — not for advantage, not for peace, not at any price the man may later be offered.
The portrait of drunkenness runs for seven verses and it works by asking questions first. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? The list is of symptoms without a cause. The answer comes in the next verse: those who linger over wine. The word needless does a great deal. These are injuries with no story behind them worth telling.
Then the warning about the moment of decision: Don't look at the wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly. Three attractions are granted, in the order a drinker meets them, and the counsel is to intervene at the looking. What follows is stated as a sequence rather than a judgment. It bites like a snake. The eyes see strange things. The mind imagines confusing things. And the man is like somebody trying to sleep on the rigging of a ship.
The last verse is his own speech, and it is one of the most unsparing things in Scripture. "They hit me, and I was not hurt! They beat me, and I don't feel it! When will I wake up? I can do it again. I will look for more." He recalls being beaten and cannot feel it, and while still describing that he is planning the next one. Nothing is added by way of comment.
The section's moral center is two verses about people in danger. Rescue those who are being led away to death! Indeed, hold back those who are staggering to the slaughter! Then the excuse is anticipated and dismantled: If you say, "Behold, we didn't know this," doesn't he who weighs the hearts consider it? Ignorance is treated as a claim that will be examined rather than accepted. The passage assumes a man usually knows more than he admits to knowing.
Two further instructions govern how a man watches other people's fortunes. Don't rejoice when your enemy falls, with a reason that stops the reader — lest God see it and turn his anger away from the enemy. And the encouragement that is quoted more than any other line here: a righteous man falls seven times and rises up again. The falling is expected. What distinguishes him is not that he stays upright.
settled What this mark means