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Sunday, August 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 15 / Ordinary 20
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New Life Version

Proverbs 4:17

For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing.

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 Century Version
They feast on wickedness and cruelty as if they were eating bread and drinking wine.
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 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 Do not go on the path of the sinful. Do not walk in the way of bad men. 15 Stay away from it. Do not pass by it. Turn from it, and pass on. 16 For they cannot sleep unless they do wrong. They are robbed of sleep unless they make someone fall. 17 For they eat the bread of sin, and drink the wine of wrong-doing. 18 But the way of those who are right is like the early morning light. It shines brighter and brighter until the perfect day. 19 The way of the sinful is like darkness. They do not know what they trip over.

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
But Abel brought a gift of the first-born of his flocks and of the fat parts. The Lord showed favor to Abel and his gift.
Genesis 4:11
Now you are cursed because of the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand.
Genesis 5:18
When Jared had lived 162 years, he became the father of Enoch.
Genesis 5:22
Enoch walked with God 300 years after the birth of Methuselah. He had other sons and daughters.
Genesis 11:4
Then they said, "Come, let us build a city for ourselves, with a tower that touches the heavens. Let us make a name for ourselves, or else we may be sent everywhere over the whole earth."
2 Samuel 18:18
While Absalom was alive, he had set up stones in his honor in the King's Valley. For he said, "I have no son to let my name be remembered." So he called the stones after his own name. And they are there to have Absalom be remembered to this day.
Psalms 49:11
They think in their hearts that their houses will last forever, and that the places where they live will last for all their children to follow. They have used their own names to name their lands.
Daniel 4:30
And he said, ‘Is not this the great Babylon which I have built as a beautiful place for the king? I have built it by my great strength and for the greatness of my power.'

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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