Proverbs 23:8 Explained in Context

Read It With

• Proverbs 23:6–9

Read Proverbs 23:8 with 23:6–9. Read alone, “The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose…” could turn a compressed observation, warning, comparison, or command into a guarantee or complete policy. The full unit establishes: contributes the claim, image, or instruction “Eat thou not the bread of him that hath an evil eye, neither desire thou his dainty meats”; by 23:9, it opens with “Speak not in the ears of a fool” and develops the line through “for he will despise the wisdom of thy words”. Together the unit concentrates on speech, listening, truth, and relational consequence, appetite, intoxication, desire, and self-government, emotion, resilience, grief, and inward life within “Sayings of the wise.”

Why This Verse Appears Here

Proverbs 23:6–9 continues “Wealth, poverty, provision, and economic power — Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom” by carrying “The calculating host and speech wasted on a fool” within the same sustained discourse, admonition, numbered form, or poem. Within that relationship, this verse contributes the claim, image, or instruction “The morsel which thou hast eaten shalt thou vomit up, and lose thy sweet words”.