Hezekiah's Collection
If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up. Proverbs 25:16 · Berean Standard Bible
Good things are wonderful, but too much of even a good thing will make you sick—moderation is wisdom, not deprivation.
Honey was precious in ancient times, a rare sweetness. You find some and it's incredibly tempting to eat as much as possible. But if you do, you'll make yourself sick. This isn't about honey specifically; it's about anything good. Excess of even excellent things becomes destructive.
Solomon, teaching the discipline of self-control and temperance
This reflects God's design for human flourishing through balance and moderation, not extremes. It connects to Paul's teaching about all things being lawful but not all things being beneficial, about running the race with discipline.
Even good things—like honey—become harmful if consumed in excess; moderation preserves pleasure and prevents illness.
The Hebrew דְּבַשׁ אַל־תַּרְבֵּה לֶאֱכֹל (devash al-tarbe le'echol—honey, do not multiply to eat) uses language suggesting that even the most desirable substance—honey, a luxury food—requires restraint. The Hebrew verb הִקִּיא (hiqqi—to vomit) appears only here in Proverbs, suggesting genuine physical consequences. This is not merely about gluttony but about the principle that quantity changes quality. The proverb reflects observation-based ethics: experience teaches that more is not always better. Byzantine scholar John of Damascus later wrote extensively on the need for bodily restraint as prerequisite to spiritual clarity.
The wisdom teacher, drawing on physiological and psychological observation.
This principle of moderation becomes crucial in Christian ethics: the desert fathers and later monastic tradition built extensive teaching on controlled consumption as spiritual discipline. Paul's principle of 'all things in moderation' (1 Corinthians 9:25) extends the proverb's insight into the spiritual realm.
14Like clouds and wind without rain is the man who boasts of gifts never given.
15Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.
16If you find honey, eat just what you need, lest you have too much and vomit it up.
17Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house, lest he grow weary and hate you.
18Like a club or sword or sharp arrow is a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.
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