Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 23:3
are deceitful meat--though well tasted, injurious.
blockversewordysbillionaire.aiyourlistWhiteboardAppquizieunschoolblockversewordysbillionaire.aiyourlistWhiteboardAppquizieunschoolBe not desirous of his dainties: for they are deceitful meat.
| Word | Hebrew | Strong’s | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| desirous | תִּ֭תְאָיו tit.'o | H183 | to wish for · verb, piel jussive, 2nd person masculine plural |
| dainties | לְמַטְעַמּוֹתָ֑יו le.mat.'a.mo.Tav | H4303 | a delicacy · preposition + noun, common feminine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular |
| deceitful | כְּזָבִֽים ke.za.Vim | H3577 | falsehood · noun, common masculine plural absolute |
| meat | לֶ֣חֶם Le.chem | H3899 | food (for man or beast) · noun, common masculine singular construct |
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
are deceitful meat--though well tasted, injurious.
Be not desirous of his dainties,.... His savoury food, which is very grateful to the taste, his rich provisions and royal dainties; do not lust after them, as the word (s) signifies, in an immoderate way, as the Israelites lusted after the fleshpots in Egypt: these may be lawfully desired, but not sinfully lusted after; and in feeding on them nature may be satisfied, and not the sensual lusts gratified in such a manner they crave, which would be criminal; for they are deceitful meat; or, "bread of lies" (t): through the pleasant and agreeable taste of them, they lead on to luxury and excess before a man is aware, and so deceive him; they promise him a great deal of pleasure, but, being too…
Read the whole note in the consolePro 22:29, which speaks of a high position near the king, is appropriately followed by a hexastich referring to the slipperiness of the smooth ground of the king's court. 1 When thou sittest to eat with a ruler, Consider well whom thou hast before thee. 2 And put thy knife to thy throat If thou art a man of good appetite. 3 Be not lustful after his dainties, Because it is deceitful food. The ל of ללחום is that of end: ad cibum capiendum, thus as one invited by him to his table; in prose the expression would be לאכל לחם; לחם, to eat, is poet., Pro 4:17; Pro 9:5. The fut. תּבין clothes the admonition in the form of a wish or counsel; the infin. intens. בּין makes it urgent: consider well him w…
Read the whole note in the consoleSaying 6: Many proverbs address young men in government service. A ruler’s rich fare might tempt a novice to overindulge through lack of self-control. But he will be vulnerable when sated.
Do not desire his delicacies, etc. Which is to say openly, do not desire to listen to the words of him who is accustomed to deceive his listeners with the sweetness of false doctrines.
There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. "Desire not," says the Scripture, "rich men's dainties;" for they belong to a false and base life. They partake of luxurious dishes, which a little after go to the dunghill. But we who seek the heavenly bread must rule the belly, which is beneath heaven, and much more the things which are agreeable to it, which "God shall destroy," says the apostle, justly execrating gluttonous desires.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Do not desire his delicacies but leave him and go [to study] before a competent teacher, and do not embarrass him with questions, since he does not know what to answer.
Henry, Jamieson-Fausset-Brown, Clarke, Gill, Calvin and Keil & Delitzsch are in the public domain; Tyndale Open Study Notes © Tyndale House Publishers, CC BY-SA 4.0 — all from the Free Use Bible API (bible.helloao.org). Rashi: the Rosenbaum & Silbermann Pentateuch (public domain) and the Judaica Press and Metsudah Tanakh (CC BY), via Sefaria. Spurgeon's Treasury of David: public domain (lyteword's markdown edition, CC0).