Satisfied or Surfeited

(Proverbs 25:16 KJV)  Hast thou found honey? eat so much as is sufficient for thee, lest thou be filled therewith, and vomit it.

The KJV and NASB have a tension here.  One goes with “excess” (7464), the other goes with “filled”.  Those would seem to be different concepts but they are both based on the same Hebrew word.  And notice they both result in vomiting.  The difficulty is that the word has a wide range of meanings from simply being satisfied to being surfeited.  I had to look that last one up.  It means stuffing so much food into your stomach that you cause it to malfunction, thus vomiting.

Like so many things we do, the meaning is found in the context.  In this case, since you have the word “vomit” (7006a) as a result, it must mean the word of excess.  This is difficult for a legalist and dangerous for an antinomian.  One wants to ignore the Holy Spirit and one wants to ignore the law.  Both are required to walk in righteousness.

So?  Moderation obviously is required, but there is also a reminder that the rules of God are to be interpreted with a desire to understand them properly, not just an easy way out.