54 Heb “its eye gives.” With ’s “bubbling up in the glass” one might think champagne was in view.
55 The expression is difficult, and is suspected of having been added from Song 7:10, although the parallel is not exact. The verb is the Hitpael imperfect of הָלַךְ (halakh); and the prepositional phrase uses the word “upright; equity; pleasing,” from יָשָׁר (yashar). has “when it moveth itself aright”; much more helpful is : “when it goeth down smoothly.” Most recent English versions are similar to . The phrase obviously refers to the pleasing nature of wine.
56 Heb “its end”; “At the last”; (interpretively) “The next morning.”

In other versions

Do not look at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup

and goes down smoothly.

In the end it bites like a serpent

and stings like an adder.

Do not gaze at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles in the cup,

when it goes down smoothly!

In the end it bites like a snake

and poisons like a viper.

Don’t gaze at wine because it is red,

because it gleams in the cup

and goes down smoothly.

In the end it bites like a snake

and stings like a viper.

Don’t gaze at the wine, seeing how red it is,

how it sparkles in the cup, how smoothly it goes down.

For in the end it bites like a poisonous snake;

it stings like a viper.

Do not look at wine when it is red,

when it sparkles on the cup,

going down smoothly.

In the end, it will bite like a serpent,

and it will sting like an adder.

Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,

When it giveth his colour in the cup,

When it moveth itself aright.

At the last it biteth like a serpent,

And stingeth like an adder.

Public Domain