Proverbs 4:17

For they eat bread ¹  gained from wickedness ²  and drink wine obtained from violence. ³ 

They eat the bread of wickedness and drink the wine of violence.

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

They eat wickedness and drink violence!

Perversity is their food and drink, violence their drug of choice.

The bread of evil-doing is their food, the wine of violent acts their drink.

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

For they eat the bread of wickedness, And drink the wine of violence.

For they eat bread ¹  gained from wickedness ²  and drink wine obtained from violence. ³ 

¹ tn The noun is a cognate accusative stressing that they consume wickedness.

² tn Heb “the bread of wickedness” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). There are two ways to take the genitives: (1) genitives of apposition: wickedness and violence are their food and drink (cf. TEV, CEV, NLT), or (2) genitives of source: they derive their livelihood from the evil they do (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 93).

³ tn Heb “the wine of violence” (so KJV, NAB, NIV, NRSV). This is a genitive of source, meaning that the wine they drink was plundered from their violent crime. The Hebrew is structured in an AB:BA chiasm: “For they eat the bread of wickedness, and the wine of violence they drink.” The word order in the translation is reversed for the sake of smoothness and readability.