Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!
Parallel translations
- WEB “Woe to him who gives his neighbor drink, pouring your inflaming wine until they are drunk, so that you may gaze at their naked bodies!
- BSB Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin until they are drunk, in order to gaze at their nakedness!
- NKJV “Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbor, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his nakedness!
- NASB ¶“Woe to him who makes his neighbor drink; To you who mix in your venom even to make your neighbors drunk, So as to look at their genitalia!
- NLT “What sorrow awaits you who make your neighbors drunk! You force your cup on them so you can gloat over their shameful nakedness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Woe is pronounced on the one who shamefully intoxicates his neighbor to exploit and humiliate him. It condemns the deliberate degradation and exploitation of others.
Overview
The fourth woe pictures the cruel manipulation of others, plying them with drink to disgrace them. The imagery likely also depicts Babylon's treatment of conquered nations, debasing and exposing them. Such calculated humiliation of one's neighbor violates God's call to love, and it stands condemned by the One who came not to shame but to clothe and restore the dishonored.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 51:7Babylon hath been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
- Gen 9:22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
- Rev 17:2With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
- Hos 7:5In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.
- Rev 18:3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
- Rev 17:6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.
- Gen 19:32–35Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve seed of our father.
- Jer 25:15For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
- 2 Sam 11:13And when David had called him, he did eat and drink before him; and he made him drunk: and at even he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but went not down to his house.
- 2 Sam 13:26–28Then said Absalom, If not, I pray thee, let my brother Amnon go with us. And the king said unto him, Why should he go with thee?
- Exod 32:25And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)
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Original language
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