Proverbs 23:34

World English Bible (2000)

Yes, you will be as he who lies down in the midst of the sea, or as he who lies on top of the rigging:

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְ֭הָיִיתָ כְּשֹׁכֵ֣ב בְּלֶב־יָ֑ם וּ֝כְשֹׁכֵ֗ב בְּרֹ֣אשׁ חִבֵּֽל׃

Transliteration

And you hāyîṯā like one šōḵēḇ in lēḇ-yām, and like one šōḵēḇ in rōʾš ḥibbēl.

Grammar Details

• *hāyîṯā*: qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular - you will be
• *šōḵēḇ*: qal participle, masculine singular - lying down
• *lēḇ-yām*: noun, masculine singular construct + noun, masculine singular - heart of sea/midst of sea
• *rōʾš*: noun, masculine singular construct - top of
• *ḥibbēl*: noun, masculine singular - mast

Word Meanings

• *šōḵēḇ bǝlēḇ-yām*: one lying in the midst of the sea/one who lies in the heart of the ocean
• *šōḵēḇ bǝrōʾš ḥibbēl*: one lying at the top of a mast/one who sleeps on the summit of a ship's mast

Referenced Verses

• Exod 15:8 : 8 With the blast of your nostrils, the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea.
• 1 Sam 25:33-38 : 33 Blessed is your discretion, and blessed are you, that have kept me this day from blood guiltiness, and from avenging myself with my own hand. 34 For indeed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from hurting you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely there wouldn't have been left to Nabal by the morning light so much as one who urinates on a wall." 35 So David received of her hand that which she had brought him: and he said to her, "Go up in peace to your house. Behold, I have listened to your voice, and have granted your request." 36 Abigail came to Nabal; and behold, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken. Therefore she told him nothing, less or more, until the morning light. 37 It happened in the morning, when the wine was gone out of Nabal, that his wife told him these things, and his heart died within him, and he became as a stone. 38 It happened about ten days after, that Yahweh struck Nabal, so that he died.
• 1 Sam 30:16-17 : 16 When he had brought him down, behold, they were spread around over all the ground, eating, drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. 17 David struck them from the twilight even to the evening of the next day. Not a man of them escaped from there, except four hundred young men, who rode on camels and fled.
• 2 Sam 13:28 : 28 Absalom commanded his servants, saying, "Mark now, when Amnon's heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, 'Strike Amnon,' then kill him. Don't be afraid. Haven't I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!"
• 1 Kgs 16:9 : 9 His servant Zimri, captain of half his chariots, conspired against him. Now he was in Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, who was over the household in Tirzah:
• 1 Kgs 20:16-22 : 16 They went out at noon. But Ben Hadad was drinking himself drunk in the pavilions, he and the kings, the thirty-two kings who helped him. 17 The young men of the princes of the provinces went out first; and Ben Hadad sent out, and they told him, saying, "Men are coming out from Samaria." 18 He said, "If they have come out for peace, take them alive; or if they have come out for war, take them alive." 19 So these went out of the city, the young men of the princes of the provinces, and the army which followed them. 20 They each killed his man. The Syrians fled, and Israel pursued them. Ben Hadad the king of Syria escaped on a horse with horsemen. 21 The king of Israel went out, and struck the horses and chariots, and killed the Syrians with a great slaughter. 22 The prophet came near to the king of Israel, and said to him, "Go, strengthen yourself, and mark, and see what you do; for at the return of the year the king of Syria will come up against you."
• Joel 1:5 : 5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
• Matt 24:38 : 38 For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship,
• Luke 17:27-29 : 27 They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ship, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, even as it happened in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 29 but in the day that Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and sulfur from the sky, and destroyed them all.
• Luke 21:34 : 34 "So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.
• 1 Thess 5:2-7 : 2 For you yourselves know well that the day of the Lord comes like a thief in the night. 3 For when they are saying, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction will come on them, like birth pains on a pregnant woman; and they will in no way escape. 4 But you, brothers, aren't in darkness, that the day should overtake you like a thief. 5 You are all children of light, and children of the day. We don't belong to the night, nor to darkness, 6 so then let's not sleep, as the rest do, but let's watch and be sober. 7 For those who sleep, sleep in the night, and those who are drunk are drunk in the night.