Proverbs 23:26

Proverbs 23 is a series of wise instructions, opening with a warning to be restrained when dining with a ruler, putting a knife to one's throat if given to appetite, and not to labor to be rich. It urges discipline of children, fearing the Lord and the king, avoiding the drunkard and the glutton, and heeding one's father who begot and one's mother who bore you. The chapter closes with a vivid portrait of wine's dangers-how it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder, leading the drinker to see strange things, speak perverse things, and lie senseless like one on a mast, yet awake to seek it again.