Proverbs 4:17 (BSB)

For they eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

From Proverbs 4. Also in the ESV.

Commentary on Proverbs 4:17

• Matthew Henry (Presbyterian), Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary on Proverbs 4:14-19: Some make David's instructions to Solomon, which began Pro 4:4, to continue to the end of the chapter; nay, some continue them to the end of the ninth chapter; but it is more probable that Solomon begins here again, if not sooner. In these verses, having exhorted us to walk in the paths of wisdom, he cautions us against the path of the wicked. 1.
• John Gill (Reformed Baptist), Exposition of the Old and New Testaments on Proverbs 4:17: For they eat the bread of wickedness,.... Either that is gotten by wicked and unlawful means, or wickedness itself is bread unto them; it is that to their minds as bread is to their bodies; they feed upon it with as much eagerness, appetite, gust, and pleasure; it is a sweet morsel to them; it is meat, drink, sleep, and everything to them; they take...
• Geneva Bible Notes (Reformed), Geneva Bible Study Notes on Proverbs 4:17: For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence. (g) Gotten my wicked means and cruel oppression.
• Keil & Delitzsch (Lutheran), Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament on Proverbs 4:17: Pro 4:17 The second כּי introduces the reason of their bodily welfare being conditioned by evil-doing. If the poet meant: they live on bread which consists in wickedness, i.e., on wickedness as their bread, then in the parallel sentence he should have used the word חמס; the genitives are meant of the means of acquisition: they live on unrighteous gain, on bread and wine which...