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New Century Version

Proverbs 4:17

They feast on wickedness and cruelty as if they were eating bread and drinking wine.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Malice;   Sin;   Wine;   Young Men;   Thompson Chain Reference - Corruption;   Nation, the;   Violence;   World, the;   The Topic Concordance - Evil;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Bread;   Wine;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Drink;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bread;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Proverbs, Book of;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Proverbs book of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Eat;  

Encyclopedias:

- The Jewish Encyclopedia - Wine;  

Devotionals:

- Every Day Light - Devotion for February 4;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
They eat the bread of wickednessand drink the wine of violence.
Hebrew Names Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
King James Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
English Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
New English Translation
For they eat bread gained from wickedness and drink wine obtained from violence.
Amplified Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.
New American Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
World English Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For they eate the breade of wickednesse, and drinke the wine of violence.
Legacy Standard Bible
For they eat the bread of wickednessAnd drink the wine of violence.
Berean Standard Bible
since they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Contemporary English Version
Their food and drink are violence and cruelty.
Complete Jewish Bible
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Darby Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Easy-to-Read Version
Evil and violence are their food and drink.
George Lamsa Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Good News Translation
Wickedness and violence are like food and drink to them.
Lexham English Bible
For they ate the bread of wickedness, and they drank the wine of violence.
Literal Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
For they eate the bred of wickednesse, and drike the wyne of robbery.
American Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Bible in Basic English
The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent acts their drink.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
King James Version (1611)
For they eate the bread of wickednesse, and drinke the wine of violence.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For they eate the bread of wickednes, and drinke the wine of robberie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
For these live upon the bread of ungodliness, and are drunken with wine of transgression.
English Revised Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Thei eten the breed of vnpite, and drinken the wyn of wickidnesse.
Update Bible Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
Webster's Bible Translation
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
New King James Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.
New Living Translation
They eat the food of wickedness and drink the wine of violence!
New Life Bible
For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing.
New Revised Standard
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
For they consume bread gotten by lawlessness, and, wine obtained by violence, they drink.
Douay-Rheims Bible
They eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of iniquity.
Revised Standard Version
For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.
Young's Literal Translation
For they have eaten bread of wickedness, And wine of violence they drink.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For they eat the bread of wickedness And drink the wine of violence.

Contextual Overview

14 Don't follow the ways of the wicked; don't do what evil people do. 15 Avoid their ways, and don't follow them. Stay away from them and keep on going, 16 because they cannot sleep until they do evil. They cannot rest until they harm someone. 17 They feast on wickedness and cruelty as if they were eating bread and drinking wine. 18 The way of the good person is like the light of dawn, growing brighter and brighter until full daylight. 19 But the wicked walk around in the dark; they can't even see what makes them stumble.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Proverbs 9:17, Proverbs 20:17, Job 24:5, Job 24:6, Psalms 14:4, Jeremiah 5:26-28, Ezekiel 22:25-29, Amos 8:4-6, Micah 3:5, Micah 6:12, Zephaniah 3:3, Matthew 23:14, James 5:4, James 5:5

Reciprocal: Genesis 27:42 - comfort himself 1 Samuel 20:24 - the king 1 Kings 21:15 - Arise Job 34:7 - General Psalms 73:6 - violence Proverbs 13:2 - the soul Isaiah 57:20 - like Micah 7:3 - do

Cross-References

Genesis 4:4
Abel brought the best parts from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord accepted Abel and his gift,
Genesis 4:11
And now you will be cursed in your work with the ground, the same ground where your brother's blood fell and where your hands killed him.
Genesis 5:18
When Jared was 162 years old, he had a son named Enoch.
Genesis 5:22
After Methuselah was born, Enoch walked with God 300 years more and had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:4
Then they said to each other, "Let's build a city and a tower for ourselves, whose top will reach high into the sky. We will become famous. Then we will not be scattered over all the earth."
2 Samuel 18:18
When Absalom was alive, he had set up a pillar for himself in the King's Valley. He said, "I have no son to keep my name alive." So he named the pillar after himself, and it is called Absalom's Monument even today.
Psalms 49:11
Their graves will always be their homes. They will live there from now on, even though they named places after themselves.
Daniel 4:30
he said, "I have built this great Babylon as my royal home. I built it by my power to show my glory and my majesty."

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For they eat the bread of wickedness,.... Either that is gotten by wicked and unlawful means, or wickedness itself is bread unto them; it is that to their minds as bread is to their bodies; they feed upon it with as much eagerness, appetite, gust, and pleasure; it is a sweet morsel to them; it is meat, drink, sleep, and everything to them; they take the highest satisfaction and the utmost delight in it;

and drink the wine of violence: either that which is obtained by rapine and violence; or they as greedily commit such acts of oppression and injury as a man drinks a glass of wine; they do not drink up iniquity like water only, but even like wine, the most generous and delicious. Wherefore all society with such men should be avoided.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The counsel which has come to him, in substance, from his father. Compare it with 2 Samuel 23:2 etc.; 1 Chronicles 28:9; 1 Chronicles 29:17; Psalms 15:1-5; Psalms 24:1-10; Psalms 37:0.

Proverbs 4:7

Or, “The beginning of wisdom is - get wisdom.” To seek is to find, to desire is to obtain.

Proverbs 4:12

The ever-recurring parable of the journey of life. In the way of wisdom the path is clear and open, obstacles disappear; in the quickest activity (“when thou runnest”) there is no risk of falling.

Proverbs 4:13

She is thy life - Another parallel between personified Wisdom in this book and the Incarnate Wisdom in John 1:4.

Proverbs 4:16

A fearful stage of debasement. Sin is the condition without which there can be no repose.

Proverbs 4:17

i. e., Bread and wine gained by unjust deeds. Compare Amos 2:8. A less probable interpretation is, “They eat wickedness as bread, and drink violence as wine.” Compare Job 15:16; Job 34:7.

Proverbs 4:18

Shining ... shineth - The two Hebrew words are different; the first having the sense of bright or clear. The beauty of a cloudless sunshine growing on, shining as it goes, to the full and perfect day, is chosen as the fittest figure of the ever increasing brightness of the good man’s life. Compare the marginal reference.

Proverbs 4:19

Compare our Lord’s teaching John 11:10; John 12:35.

Proverbs 4:20

The teacher speaks again in his own person.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Proverbs 4:17. For they eat the bread of wickedness — By privately stealing.

And drink the wine of violence. — By highway robbery.


 
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