Proverbs 4:17 - Exposition

For ( ki, equivalent to the Greek γὰρ ) is here explanatory. It serves not so much to introduce another independent statement, as one which accounts for the statement made in the preceding verse, that the wicked sleep not unless they have done mischief, i.e. it states the reason why they are so conditioned. There is no comparison expressed in the original, as the rendering adopted by Schultens and others implies, "For wickedness do they eat as bread, and violence do they drink as wine," which is evidently based on Job 15:16 , "Which drinketh up iniquity like water," and Job 34:7 , "Who drinketh up scorning like water." The literal rendering is, for they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence do they drink. The bread of wickedness ( lekhem resha ) is not bread which consists in wickedness, but bread which is obtained by wickedness, just as the wine of violence ( yiyin khamasim ) is not the wine which produces violence, but the wine that is procured by violent dee,is. Their support, what they eat and drink, is obtained by wickedness and injustice. They live by wrong. For such expressions as "the bread of wickedness" and "the wine of violence," cf. Deuteronomy 16:3 , "the bread of affliction;" Psalms 127:2 , "the bread of sorrows;" and Amos 2:8 , "the wine of the condemned." There is a charade of tense in the verbs, the first being perfect, "they have eaten," and the second future, "they shall drink," which Delitzsch explains as representing the twofold act—first eating the bread, and then washing it down with wine.