Titus 2:3

2:3 Older women likewise are to exhibit behavior fitting for those who are holy, not slandering, not slaves to excessive drinking, but teaching what is good.

Imamat 10:9

10:9 “Do not drink wine or strong drink, you and your sons with you, when you enter into the Meeting Tent, so that you do not die, which is a perpetual statute throughout your generations, ¹ 

Amsal 31:4-5

31:4 It is not for kings, ²  O Lemuel,

it is not for kings to drink wine, ³ 

or for rulers to crave strong drink, ⁴ 

31:5 lest they drink and forget what is decreed,

and remove ⁵  from all the poor ⁶  their legal rights. ⁷ 

Yesaya 28:7

28:7 Even these men ⁸  stagger because of wine,

they stumble around because of beer –

priests and prophets stagger because of beer,

they are confused ⁹  because of wine,

they stumble around because of beer;

they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, ¹⁰ 

they totter while making legal decisions. ¹¹ 

Yesaya 56:12

56:12 Each one says, ¹² 

‘Come on, I’ll get some wine!

Let’s guzzle some beer!

Tomorrow will be just like today!

We’ll have everything we want!’ ¹³ 

Yehezkiel 44:21

44:21 No priest may drink wine when he enters the inner court.

Efesus 5:18

5:18 And do not get drunk with wine, which ¹⁴  is debauchery, ¹⁵  but be filled by the Spirit, ¹⁶ 

Efesus 5:1

Live in Love

5:1 Therefore, be ¹⁷  imitators of God as dearly loved children

Titus 3:3

3:3 For we too were once foolish, disobedient, misled, enslaved to various passions and desires, spending our lives in evil and envy, hateful and hating one another.

[10:9]  ¹ tn Heb “a perpetual statute for your generations”; NAB “a perpetual ordinance”; NRSV “a statute forever”; NLT “a permanent law.” The Hebrew grammar here suggests that the last portion of v. 9 functions as both a conclusion to v. 9 and an introduction to vv. 10-11. It is a pivot clause, as it were. Thus, it was a “perpetual statute” to not drink alcoholic beverages when ministering in the tabernacle, but it was also a “perpetual statue” to distinguish between holy and profane and unclean and clean (v. 10) as well as to teach the children of Israel all such statutes (v. 11).

[31:4]  ² tn Heb “[It is] not for kings.”

[31:4]  ³ sn This second warning for kings concerns the use of alcohol. If this passage is meant to prohibit any use of alcohol by kings, it would be unheard of in any ancient royal court. What is probably meant is an excessive and unwarranted use of alcohol, or a troubling need for it, so that the meaning is “to drink wine in excess” (cf. NLT “to guzzle wine”; CEV “should not get drunk”). The danger, of course, would be that excessive use of alcohol would cloud the mind and deprive a king of true administrative ability and justice.

[31:4]  ⁴ tn The MT has אֵו (’ev), a Kethib/Qere reading. The Kethib is אוֹ (’o) but the Qere is אֵי (’ey). Some follow the Qere and take the word as a shortened form of וַֹיֵּה, “where?” This would mean the ruler would be always asking for drink (cf. ASV). Others reconstruct to אַוֵּה (’avveh, “to desire; to crave”). In either case, the verse would be saying that a king is not to be wanting/seeking alcohol.

[31:4]  tn Here “strong drink” probably refers to barley beer (cf. NIV, NCV “beer”).

[31:5]  ⁵ tn The verb means “change,” perhaps expressed in reversing decisions or removing rights.

[31:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “all the children of poverty.” This expression refers to the poor by nature. Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the afflicted”; NIV “oppressed.”

[31:5]  ⁷ sn The word is דִּין (din, “judgment”; so KJV). In this passage it refers to the cause or the plea for justice, i.e., the “legal rights.”

[28:7]  ⁸ tn Heb “these.” The demonstrative pronoun anticipates “priests and prophets” two lines later.

[28:7]  ⁹ tn According to HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע, the verb form is derived from בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”), not the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”). See earlier notes at 3:12 and 9:16.

[28:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “in the seeing.”

[28:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “[in] giving a decision.”

[56:12]  ¹² tn The words “each one says” are supplied in the translation for clarification.

[56:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “great, [in] abundance, very much,” i.e., “very great indeed.” See HALOT 452 s.v. יֶתֶר.

[5:18]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “in which.”

[5:18]  ¹⁵ tn Or “dissipation.” See BDAG 148 s.v. ἀσωτία.

[5:18]  ¹⁶ tn Many have taken ἐν πνεύματι (en pneumati) as indicating content, i.e., one is to be filled with the Spirit. ExSyn 375 states, “There are no other examples in biblical Greek in which ἐν + the dative after πληρόω indicates content. Further, the parallel with οἴνῳ as well as the common grammatical category of means suggest that the idea intended is that believers are to be filled by means of the [Holy] Spirit. If so there seems to be an unnamed agent. The meaning of this text can only be fully appreciated in light of the πληρόω language in Ephesians. Always the term is used in connection with a member of the Trinity. Three considerations seem to be key: (1) In Eph 3:19 the ‘hinge’ prayer introducing the last half of the letter makes a request that the believers ‘be filled with all the fullness of God’ (πληρωθῆτε εἰς πᾶν πλήρωμα τοῦ θεοῦ). The explicit content of πληρόω is thus God’s fullness (probably a reference to his moral attributes). (2) In 4:10 Christ is said to be the agent of filling (with v. 11 adding the specifics of his giving spiritual gifts). (3) The author then brings his argument to a crescendo in 5:18: Believers are to be filled by Christ by means of the Spirit with the content of the fullness of God.”

[5:1]  ¹⁷ tn Or “become.”