As he that lieth down in the midst of the sea. — And so would inevitably be drowned if he trusted to its smooth, glassy appearance.
As he that lieth upon the top of a mast. — Whom every roll of the ship might hurl into the waves. The absolute insensibility of the drunkard to danger is here described. Or it may mean that everything round the drunkard and the ground on which he lies, seem to rock like the waves of the sea, or the masthead of a ship.