Proverbs 23:29-32
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has contentions? Who has complaints? Who has needless wounds? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to taste mixed drinks. Do not gaze at wine while it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a snake and stings like a viper.
Berean Standard Bible, public domain. Read all of Proverbs 23
9 songs meet this passage
“Now I'm up all night drinkin' poison”
Floods · Lucky Daye
strains against Proverbs 23:29-32
Scripture warns that numbing pain with drink only deepens confusion rather than resolving the hurt beneath it.
“I was a functioning alcoholic”
Fortnight (feat. Post Malone) · Taylor Swift
strains against Proverbs 23:29-30
The song names the numbing coping mechanism casually, where Proverbs names it as a warning sign of deeper sorrow.
“Papa was a rolling stone, Mama developed a habit”
Mockingbird · Eminem
strains against Proverbs 23:29-30
The unnamed habit's wreckage on the family echoes the warning of what strong drink and instability bring upon a household.
“the bottle that you drink”
Wanted Dead or Alive · Bon Jovi
strains against Proverbs 23:29-30
Proverbs warns against numbing sorrow with drink, while the song treats it as a neutral marker of time rather than a trap to examine.
“Liquor was the only love I've known”
Tennessee Whiskey · Chris Stapleton
resonates with Proverbs 23:29-30
Names the emptiness of seeking comfort in drink, the exact ache the singer describes before being rescued.
“Always tryna send me off to rehab”
The Hills · The Weeknd
strains against Proverbs 23:29-35
Proverbs names the cycle of drunkenness and craving for more as misery, while the narrator dismisses help and romanticizes the relapse.
“he lives with the bottle”
Fast Car · Luke Combs
strains against Proverbs 23:29-35
The father's drinking and its toll on the family illustrates the very warning Proverbs gives about the bottle's cost to those who depend on him.
“Please don't throw up in the car we almost crash”
Drunk and Hot Girls (feat. Mos Def) · Kanye West
strains against Proverbs 23:31-32
Drunkenness here is played for laughs and irritation rather than acknowledged as something that actually harms the person swept up in it.
“when you're high, you never ever wanna come down”
Welcome To The Jungle · Guns N' Roses
resonates with Proverbs 23:32-35
Captures the same cycle of craving more after the high, numb to the danger it brings.
Each reading weighs one song’s words against Scripture. It is AI-assisted and can be wrong; open a song to see its whole reading and decide for yourself.