Verse Lens · Expanded explanation
Proverbs 23:29 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 29. 29Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath redness of eyes?
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Quick Meaning
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”.
Read It With
- Proverbs 23:29–35
Read Proverbs 23:29 inside Proverbs 23:29–35: it contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”. The unit then locates that line within appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life rather than treating it as a free-standing formula.
Why This Verse Appears Here
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”. This contributes necessary evidence to “Appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government — Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who...,” where appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life are read together without erasing the sentence saying's own force.
Follow the Context
- Opening (23:29): the unit contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”.
- Development (23:29–35): adjacent lines test appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, generosity, neighbor-care, and material responsibility, observational wisdom drawn from creatures and ordinary life through parallelism, contrast, motive, image, or consequence.
- Close (23:35): the unit opens with “They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not...” and develops the line through “when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again”, creating the next supported pause.
Phrase-by-Phrase Explanation
“Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath...”
In plain language: appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government
This verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”.
Why it matters: This wording carries interpretive, pastoral, or misuse risk requiring the full unit and explicit limits.
How certain? probableWhat This Verse Is Not Saying
The verse does not invite ridicule, moral superiority, or a diagnosis from symptoms without competent assessment.
What Remains True
Unexamined appetite can narrow judgment and make people, resources, and responsibilities easier to neglect. In Proverbs 23:29, that bounded truth is expressed through “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath...,” not through a promise detached from its literary form.
How It Can Shape Life
- Set realistic limits, reduce access to known hazards, seek support early, and respond to compulsive use without stigma. For Proverbs 23:29, preserve the sequence: verse role (contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who hath babbling? who hath wounds without cause? who hath...”) -> contextual meaning in Proverbs 23:29–35 -> proportionate truth -> this accountable response.
Teach It Back
Explain Proverbs 23:29's exact role in Proverbs 23:29–35. Distinguish pattern from guarantee, include “Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath...,” name one uncertainty, and explicitly reject one harmful use.
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Continue in Context
The full thought-unit study remains the final contextual authority for this Verse Lens.
Read Proverbs 23:29–35 — Appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government — Who hath woe? who hath sorrow? who hath contentions? who...Sources used for this Verse Lens
How certain is this explanation? probable
Where care is needed
The six questions begin an extended portrayal of alcohol-related misery rather than a detached moral label.
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV words, canonical order, paragraph flags, supplied-word markup, and complete unit coverage.
Exact location: Proverbs 23:29–35, repository-pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Proverbs
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology used only for the exact unit's lexical, grammatical, parallel, superscription, number-saying, and acrostic questions.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Prov.xml, OSIS 23:29-23:35
Open source ↗translation and translator notes
NET Bible: Proverbs with translators' notes
Biblical Studies Press
Biblical Studies Press, 2006
Supports: Verse-attached textual, lexical, grammatical, syntactic, parallelism, and older-English controls for the exact range.
Exact location: NET Bible Proverbs PDF, printed pp. 1152-1156, exact tc/tn/sn entries attached to 23:29–35
Open source ↗modern critical commentary
Proverbs
K. T. Aitken
Oxford University Press, in The Oxford Bible Commentary, 2001
Supports: Whole-book and collection orientation, local commentary, social-setting proposals, and named interpretation limits.
Exact location: Aitken, ‘Proverbs,’ Oxford Bible Commentary, printed pp. 405-422, subsection covering 23:29–35 and the Sayings of the wise outline
Open source ↗scholarly monograph chapter abstract and metadata
Context in the Sayings Collections
Stuart Weeks
Oxford University Press, in Early Israelite Wisdom, 2000
Supports: Abstract-level control for the dispute over individual-saying, small-cluster, and collection context; no uninspected detailed claim.
Exact location: Weeks, ‘Context in the Sayings Collections,’ Early Israelite Wisdom (2000), official abstract and chapter pp. 20-40; methodological question applied to Proverbs 23:29–35
Open source ↗peer reviewed open access journal article
The situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth in the Book of Proverbs
G. H. Wittenberg
Scriptura 21, 1987; open archive 2020
Supports: One historical-social account of poverty, wealth, interest, oppression, labor, and differing evaluations within the collection.
Exact location: Wittenberg, ‘Situational context of statements concerning poverty and wealth,’ Scriptura 21, pp. 1-23, especially the sayings and redactional comparison relevant to Proverbs 23:29–35
Open source ↗