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Selected Verse: Proverbs 25:16 - King James

Verse	Translation	Text
Pr 25:16	King James	Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

Summary Of Commentaries Associated With The Selected Verse

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A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]
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.

A Commentary, Critical, Practical, and Explanatory on the Old and New Testaments, by Robert Jamieson, A.R. Fausset and David Brown [1882]

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.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]
Hast thou found honey? - Compare Jdg 14:8; Sa1 14:27. The precept extends to the pleasure of which honey is the symbol.

Notes on the Bible, by Albert Barnes, [1834]

Hast thou found honey? - Compare Jdg 14:8; Sa1 14:27. The precept extends to the pleasure of which honey is the symbol.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]
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 and vomit it out (והקאתו with Tsere, and א quiesc., as at Sa2 14:10; vid., Michlol 116a, and Parchon under קוא). Fleischer, Ewald, Hitzig, and others, place Pro 25:16 and Pro 25:17 together, so as to form an emblematic tetrastich; but he who is surfeited is certainly, in Pro 25:16, he who willingly enjoys, and in 17, he to whom it is given to enjoy without his will; and is not, then, Pro 25:16 a sentence complete in itself in meaning? That it is not to be understood in a purely dietetic sense (although thus interpreted it is a rule not to be despised), is self-evident. As one can suffer injury from the noblest of food if he overload his stomach therewith, so in the sphere of science, instruction, edification, there is an injurious overloading of the mind; we ought to measure what we receive by our spiritual want, the right distribution of enjoyment and labour, and the degree of our ability to change it in succum et sanguinem, - else it at last awakens in us dislike, and becomes an evil to us.

Commentary on the Old Testament, by Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch [1857-78]

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 and vomit it out (והקאתו with Tsere, and א quiesc., as at Sa2 14:10; vid., Michlol 116a, and Parchon under קוא). Fleischer, Ewald, Hitzig, and others, place Pro 25:16 and Pro 25:17 together, so as to form an emblematic tetrastich; but he who is surfeited is certainly, in Pro 25:16, he who willingly enjoys, and in 17, he to whom it is given to enjoy without his will; and is not, then, Pro 25:16 a sentence complete in itself in meaning? That it is not to be understood in a purely dietetic sense (although thus interpreted it is a rule not to be despised), is self-evident. As one can suffer injury from the noblest of food if he overload his stomach therewith, so in the sphere of science, instruction, edification, there is an injurious overloading of the mind; we ought to measure what we receive by our spiritual want, the right distribution of enjoyment and labour, and the degree of our ability to change it in succum et sanguinem, - else it at last awakens in us dislike, and becomes an evil to us.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]
Honey - By honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all worldly delights, which we are here taught to use with moderation.

Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible, by John Wesley [1754-65]

Honey - By honey he understands, not only all delicious meats, but all worldly delights, which we are here taught to use with moderation.

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826
Hast thou found honey? - Make a moderate use of all thy enjoyments. "Let thy moderation be known unto all, and appear in all things."

Adam Clarke Commentary on the Whole Bible - Published 1810-1826

Hast thou found honey? - Make a moderate use of all thy enjoyments. "Let thy moderation be known unto all, and appear in all things."

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