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 (my boon companions, and others provoked by me in my drunkenness, who inflicted my "wounds without cause," Proverbs 23:29 ; especially God's judgments and Gods reproofs, Jeremiah 5:3 ; Proverbs 17:10 ) have stricken me, (shalt thou say, and) I was not sick; they have beaten me, and I felt it not. Insensibility to correction is the spiritual mortification which precedes death (Isaiah 1:5). Habitual drunkenness generates stubborn impenitence "past feeling" (Ephesians 4:19; Deuteronomy 29:19).
When shall I awake? - implying impatience of delay, that he may as soon as possible return to drink again, reckless of the stripes and wounds which he gets. He scarcely awakes from one drunken fit when he wants reckless of the stripes and wounds which he gets. He scarcely awakes from one drunken fit when he wants another.
I will seek it yet again - (Isaiah 56:12.)