“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!
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!
- KJV 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!
- 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!
- 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 has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
- Gen 9:22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside.
- Rev 17:2with whom the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality, and those who dwell in the earth were made drunken with the wine of her sexual immorality.”
- Hos 7:5On the day of our king, the princes made themselves sick with the heat of wine. He joined his hand with mockers.
- Rev 18:3For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
- Rev 17:6I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I wondered with great amazement.
- Gen 19:32–35Come, let’s make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve our father’s family line.”
- Jer 25:15For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.
- 2 Sam 11:13When David had called him, he ate and drink before him; and he made him drunk. At evening, he went out to lie on his bed with the servants of his lord, but didn’t go down to his house.
- 2 Sam 13:26–28Then Absalom said, “If not, please let my brother Amnon go with us.” The king said to him, “Why should he go with you?”
- Exod 32:25When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),
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