Proverbs - 23:33



33 Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind will imagine confusing things.

Verse In-Depth

Explanation and meaning of Proverbs 23:33.

Differing Translations

Compare verses for better understanding.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Thine eyes shall behold strange things, And thy heart shall utter perverse things.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall speak froward things;
Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thine heart shall utter froward things.
Thine eyes see strange women, And thy heart speaketh perverse things.
Your eyes will see strange things, and you will say twisted things.
Thine eyes shall behold strange things, and thy heart shall utter confused things.
Your eyes will see women who are outsiders, and your heart will utter perversities.

*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.


Historical Commentaries

Scholarly Analysis and Interpretation.

Thine eyes shall behold strange women - Evil concupiscence is inseparable from drunkenness. Mr. Herbert shows these effects well: -
He that is drunken may his mother kill,Big with his sister: he hath lost the reins;
Is outlawed by himself. All kinds of illDid, with his liquor, slide into his veins.
The drunkard forfeits man; and doth divestAll worldly right, save what he hath by beast.
Herbert's Poems - The Church Porch.

Thy (o) eyes shall behold strange women, and thy heart shall utter perverse things.
(o) That is, drunkenness will bring you to whoredom.

Thine eyes shall behold strange women,.... Being inflamed with wine, shall look upon women, other men's wives, and lust after them; or harlots, whom seeking after or meeting with, when in their cups, are drawn into their embraces; excess of wine leads to whoredom (w). So Aben Ezra supplies the word "women", and Jarchi interprets it to this sense; but the Targum renders it, "strange things"; and so many others: a drunken man, through the lunges and vapours that ascend into his brain, fancies he sees strange sights; he sees things double; imagines that he sees trees walk, and many such like absurd and monstrous things;
and thine heart shall utter perverse things; or the mouth, from the abundance of the heart, and imagination of it, shall utter things contrary to sense and reason, contrary to truth and righteousness, contrary to chastity and good manners, contrary to their own honour and credit, contrary to God and men; the mouth then utters all that is in the heart, which it at other times conceals. It may have a particular respect to the unchaste, filthy, and obscene words, uttered to strange women, into whose company men fall when in liquor.
(w) "Vina parant animos Veneri", Ovid. de Arte Amandi, l. 1.

The moral effects: it inflames passion (Genesis 19:31, Genesis 19:35), lays open the heart, produces insensibility to the greatest dangers, and debars from reformation, under the severest sufferings.

*More commentary available at chapter level.


Discussion on Proverbs 23:33

User discussion of the verse.






*By clicking Submit, you agree to our Privacy Policy & Terms of Use.