My son, eat honey because it is good,And the honeycomb which is sweet to your taste;
So shall the knowledge of wisdom be to your soul;If you have found it, there is a prospect,And your hope will not be cut off.
Proverbs 24:13–14 · NKJVPart of Honey and Wisdom, Proverbs 24:13–14.
Quick answer
Wisdom tastes like that to a person. And the saying closes with the thing it actually came to say, which is that whoever has found it has a future and a hope that will hold.
Read the whole unit
Read the whole unit
The comparison only works because the first half is sincere. Honey was the sweetest thing available and the saying tells a son to enjoy it, with the reason given as because it is good, which is not a metaphor yet. Only then does the second verse turn the corner, and by then the reader has already agreed to the premise.
What the saying is arguing against is the assumption that wisdom is medicine. It says wisdom is honey, and that the appropriate relationship to it is appetite rather than duty. Then the last two lines do something the collection does rarely, which is to look forward. The word behind "prospect" is אַחֲרִית, footnoted by the NKJV as literally latter end, meaning the way a thing turns out. That word is the hinge of the chapter, because six verses later the same noun is denied to the evil man: "there will be no prospect for the evil man" (24:20). One has a latter end; the other does not. And the final clause is a promise about hope specifically, that it will not be cut off, which assumes a reader who has wondered whether it might be.
What this verse contributes
the turn, and the forward look. Wisdom found means a latter end and an uncut hope, which is the strongest consolation in the collection.
The other half
Eat honey. The saying opens with the least religious instruction in the chapter, and it means it literally before it means anything else.
Related: Proverbs 24:20 · Proverbs 23:18 · Proverbs 16:24 · Psalm 19:10
New King James Version®, Copyright © 1982, Thomas Nelson. All rights reserved. Full copyright information. Scripture provided by API.Bible.
Go Deeper
If this verse has been used to put weight on you that it was never carrying, ask about it directly.