Proverbs 23:35
They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not: when shall I awake? I will seek it yet again.
Strong drink so dulls the senses that a man can be stricken and beaten without realizing it, feeling it, or recognizing the harm done to him. He becomes insensible under its power, with awareness impaired and pain unfelt. When he wakes from drunkenness he returns repeatedly to the appetite that harms him and seeks drink yet again. Even when awakened to his misery and degradation he cannot break free, so complete is its enslaving power.
That return reveals the drunkard's progressive career, in which the taste for stimulants grows gradually while reason and self-control weaken. At last reason is lost, so that the drunken man does not know what he is doing. Even strong resolutions fail to restrain the appetite, and even concern for eternal interests fails to hold him back.
Continued indulgence in spirituous liquors is great evil and transgression, for drinkers go right on though told again and again that they are lessening the days of their life. They refuse to cease transgressing the laws of God and to preserve themselves in a condition of health. The verse stands as part of the warning about wine and strong drink, that intoxication beclouds the powers God has given and does harm that leads to death. Wine and liquor bring madness and woe and death-dealing harm, so that complete abstinence is the only safety.