Proverbs 25:16

Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
found	מָ֭צָאתָ Ma.tza.ta	H4672	properly · verb, qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
honey	דְּבַ֣שׁ de.Vash	H1706	honey (from its stickiness) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
eat	אֱכֹ֣ל 'e.Khol	H398	to eat (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperative, 2nd person masculine singular
sufficient	דַּיֶּ֑ךָּ dai.Ye.ka	H1767	enough (as noun or adverb) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
filled	תִּ֝שְׂבָּעֶ֗נּוּ tis.ba.'E.nu	H7646	to sate · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
vomit	וַהֲקֵֽאתֽוֹ va.ha.Ke.To	H6958	to vomit · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular

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

Proverbs 25:27 It is not good to eat much honey: so for men to search their own glory is not glory.
Ephesians 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
Proverbs 24:13-14 My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; and the honeycomb, which is sweet to thy taste:
Isaiah 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
1 Samuel 14:25-27 And all they of the land came to a wood; and there was honey upon the ground.
Luke 21:34 And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so th…
Judges 14:8-9 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and hon…
Proverbs 23:8 The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words.

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:16

Here, 1. We are allowed a sober and moderate use of the delights of sense: Hast thou found honey? It is not forbidden fruit to thee, as it was to Jonathan; thou mayest eat of it with thanksgiving to God, who, having created things grateful to our senses, has given us leave to make use of them. Eat as much as is sufficient, and no more. Enough is as good as a feast. 2. We are cautioned to take heed of excess. We must use all pleasures as we do honey, with a check upon our appetite, lest we take more than does us good and make ourselves sick with it. We are most in danger of surfeiting upon that which is most sweet, and therefore those that fare sumptuously every day have need to watch over th…

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Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

A comparison, as a surfeit of honey produces physical disgust, so your company, however agreeable in moderation, may, if excessive, lead your friend to hate you.

John Gill on Proverbs 25:16

Hast thou found honey?.... Of which there was great plenty in Judea; and was to be found in fields and woods, 1 Samuel 14:25; eat so much as is sufficient for thee; to satisfy appetite, without overcharging the stomach; what may be conducive to health, and no more; lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it; that is, overfilled; filled to a loathing of it, so as to cause a casting of it up this is not merely to be understood in a literal sense; something more is intended, as in Proverbs 24:13; and according to the sense there, that which Maimonides (l) gives of this seems agreeable; that it respects the getting of wisdom and knowledge, which, like honey, is sweet and desirable, and excell…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:16

Another way of showing self-control: Hast thou found honey? eat thy enough, Lest thou be surfeited with it, and vomit it up. Honey is pleasant, salutary, and thus to be eaten sparingly, Pro 24:13, but ne quid nimis. Too much is unwholesome, 27a: αὐτοῦ καὶ μέλιτος τὸ πλέον ἐστὶ χολή, i.e., even honey enjoyed immoderately is as bitter as gall; or, as Freidank says: des honges seze erdruizet s mans ze viel geniuzet [the sweetness of honey offends when one partakes too much of it]. Eat if thou hast found any in the forest or the mountains, דּיּךּ, thy enough (lxx τὸ ἱκανόν; the Venet. τὸ ἀρκοῦν σοι), i.e., as much as appeases thine appetite, that thou mayest not become surfeited a…

The Church Fathers

Have you found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for you, etc. You have found the sweetness of heavenly understanding, which is ministered to you by the office of spiritual fathers, as the labor of most prudent bees. See therefore that you do not desire to know more than what is fitting to know, lest while you seek to understand the highest things beyond your strength, you lose even what you understood well. This verse can also be typically understood in what is aptly subjected in the following:
— Bede, Commentary on Proverbs

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Honey — (1.) Heb. ya’ar, occurs only 1 Sam. 14:25, 27, 29; Cant. 5:1, where it denotes the honey of bees. Properly the word signifies a forest or copse, and refers to honey found in woods. (2.) Nopheth,…
Honey · Moderation needful in the use of — Moderation needful in the use of
Temperance · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning

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).

Proverbs 25:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

John Gill on Proverbs 25:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Proverbs 25:16

Word by word — the Hebrew

Cross-references

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Proverbs 25:16

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown on Proverbs 25:16

John Gill on Proverbs 25:16

Keil & Delitzsch on Proverbs 25:16

The Church Fathers

Dictionary and topics

Tyndale Open Study Notes on Proverbs 25:16-17

Rashi on Proverbs 25:16