What Does Proverbs 23:30 Mean?
Those who linger long over wine, those who go searching out the mixed drink.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.THE KEY
The same Hebrew search verb that describes a king searching out a matter here describes someone pursuing mixed wine: what attention seeks gives that search its direction.
THE MEANING
This verse names how an appetite moves: attention lingers over wine, then becomes a search for a prepared mixture. The pull shows itself in the time and intention gathered around the cup, as much as in the drinking.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie this undoes is that the matter is only the drink itself; the verse also names the lingering and deliberate search gathered around it.
THE ROOT
לַחְקֹר
laḥqor
GROWS FROM
חקר
ḥ-q-r
to search, investigate, probe deeply
“go searching out” in this verse is laḥqor. The Hebrew describes an active search, not merely being near the wine. This same root appears in Proverbs 25:2 for searching out a matter, showing that the capacity to investigate takes its direction from what it pursues.
ALSO GROWS
ḥāqar: to search, examine, investigate
חָקַר
This verb form makes the verse’s seeking an intentional probing rather than a passing glance.
ḥēqer: search, inquiry, what is explored
חֵקֶר
The related noun appears in Proverbs 25:2 as “search out”; there, the search has a matter as its object, while here it has mixed wine.
מִמְסָךְ
mimsak
GROWS FROM
מסך
m-s-k
to mix, mingle
“mixed drink” in this verse is mimsak. The drink is named by its blending: the seeker looks for a mixture, not simply wine. The root keeps the act of combining visible inside the English phrase “mixed wine.”
ALSO GROWS
māsakh: to mix or mingle
מָסַךְ
This verb supplies the action contained in the drink’s name.
mesekh: mixture, mixed drink
מֶסֶךְ
This related noun makes the blend itself part of what is sought.
לַמְאַחֲרִים
la-me’aḥărîm
GROWS FROM
אחר
ʾ-ḥ-r
after, behind; to delay or stay late
“linger long” in this verse is la-me’aḥărîm. English presents this as a length of time, while the Hebrew verb carries the act of delaying. Lingering is part of the pattern the verse names, before the search for the mixture begins.
ALSO GROWS
ʾaḥar: after, behind, later
אַחַר
This root sense gives “tarry” the shade of staying on past the moment.
ʾaḥaron: later, last
אַחֲרוֹן
This related form retains the root’s sense of what comes afterward, echoing the delay built into lingering.
THE PATTERN
What holds sustained attention begins to direct the next pursuit.
Woe to those who rise early in the morning to pursue strong drink, who continue into the night until wine burns in them!For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.THE THREAD
The weight of God is to hide a matter; the weight of kings is to search out a matter.“Seek” in Proverbs 23:30 and “search out” in Proverbs 25:2 come from the same Hebrew root, חקר. The search itself is the same; what changes is its object, mixed wine here, a matter to uncover there.
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