Proverbs 31:6

31:6 Give strong drink to the one who is perishing, ¹ 

and wine to those who are bitterly distressed; ² 

Ecclesiastes 9:7

Life is Brief, so Cherish its Joys

9:7 Go, eat your food ³  with joy,

and drink your wine with a happy heart,

because God has already approved your works.

Ecclesiastes 10:19

10:19 Feasts ⁴  are made ⁵  for laughter,

and wine makes life merry, ⁶ 

but money is the answer ⁷  for everything.

The Song of Songs 5:1

The Lover to His Beloved:

5:1 I have entered my garden, O my sister, my bride;

I have gathered my myrrh with my balsam spice.

I have eaten my honeycomb and my honey;

I have drunk my wine and my milk!

The Poet to the Couple: ⁸ 

Eat, friends, and drink! ⁹ 

Drink freely, O lovers!

Habakkuk 1:6

1:6 Look, I am about to empower ¹⁰  the Babylonians,

that ruthless ¹¹  and greedy ¹²  nation.

They sweep across the surface ¹³  of the earth,

seizing dwelling places that do not belong to them.

Matthew 11:19

11:19 The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him, ¹⁴  a glutton and a drunk, a friend of tax collectors ¹⁵  and sinners!’ ¹⁶  But wisdom is vindicated ¹⁷  by her deeds.” ¹⁸ 

John 2:10

2:10 and said to him, “Everyone ¹⁹  serves the good wine first, and then the cheaper ²⁰  wine when the guests ²¹  are drunk. You have kept the good wine until now!”

[31:6]  ¹ sn Wine and beer should be given to those distressed and dying in order to ease their suffering and help them forget.

[31:6]  ² tn Heb “to the bitter of soul.” The phrase לְמָרֵי נָפֶשׁ (lÿmare nafesh) has been translated “of heavy hearts” (KJV); “in anguish” (NIV); “in misery” (TEV); “in bitter distress” (NRSV); “sorely depressed” (NAB); “in deep depression (NLT); “have lost all hope” (CEV). The word “bitter” (מַר, mar) describes the physical and mental/spiritual suffering as a result of affliction, grief, or suffering – these people are in emotional pain. So the idea of “bitterly distressed” works as well as any other translation.

[9:7]  ³ tn Heb “your bread.”

[10:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “bread.” The term לֶחֶם (lekhem) is used literally of “bread” and figuratively (i.e., by metonymy) for a “feast” (BDB 536–37 s.v. לֶחֶם). BDB suggests that עֹשִׂיה לֶחֶם (’osih lekhem) in Eccl 10:19 means “make a feast” (BDB 537 s.v. לֶחֶם 1.a). This obscure line has occasioned numerous proposals: “a feast is made for laughter” (KJV, ASV, NIV); “feasts are made for laughter” (NRSV); “men feast for merrymaking” (Moffatt); “men prepare a meal for enjoyment” (NASB); “the table has its pleasures” (NEB); “they [i.e., rulers of v. 16] make a banquet for revelry” (NJPS); “people prepare a banquet for enjoyment” (MLB); “for laughter they make bread and wine, that the living may feast” (Douay); “bread is made for laughter” (RSV); “bread [and oil] call forth merriment” (NAB).

[10:19]  ⁵ tn The subject of the verb is not specified. When active verbs have an unspecified subject, they are often used in a passive sense: “Bread [feasts] are made….”

[10:19]  ⁶ tn Heb “and wine gladdens life.”

[10:19]  ⁷ tn Or “and [they think that] money is the answer for everything.”

[5:1]  ⁸ sn There is no little debate about the identity of the speaker(s) and the audience addressed in 5:1b. There are five options: (1) He is addressing his bride. (2) The bride is addressing him. (3) The wedding guests are addressing him and his bride. (4) He and his bride are addressing the wedding guests. (5) The poet is addressing him and his bride. When dealing with this issue, the following factors should be considered: (1) the form of both the exhortations and the addressees are plural. This makes it unlikely that he is addressing his bride or that his bride is addressing him. (2) The exhortation has an implicitly sexual connotation because the motif of “eating” and “drinking” refers to sexual consummation in 5:1a. This makes it unlikely that he or his bride are addressing the wedding guests – an orgy is quite out of the question! (3) The poet could be in view because as the writer who created the Song, only he could have been with them – in a poetic sense – in the bridal chamber as a “guest” on their wedding night. (4) The wedding guests could be in view through the figurative use of apostrophe (addressing an audience that is not in the physical presence of the speaker). While the couple was alone in their wedding chambers, the wedding guests wished them all the joys and marital bliss of the honeymoon. This is supported by several factors: (a) Wedding feasts in the ancient Near East frequently lasted several days and after the couple had consummated their marriage, they would appear again to celebrate a feast with their wedding guests. (b) The structure of the Song is composed of paired-dialogues which either begin or conclude with the words of the friends or daughters of Jerusalem (1:2-4, 5-11; 3:6-11; 5:9-16; 6:1-3, 4-13; 7:1-10) or which conclude with an exhortation addressed to them (2:1-7; 3:1-5; 8:1-4). In this case, the poetic unit of 4:1-5:1 would conclude with an exhortation by the friends in 5:1b.

[5:1]  ⁹ sn The physical love between the couple is compared to eating and drinking at a wedding feast. This is an appropriate figure of comparison because it would have been issued during the feast which followed the wedding and the consummation. The term “drink” refers to intoxication, that is, it compares becoming drunk on wine with enjoying the physical love of one’s spouse (e.g., Prov 5:19-20).

[1:6]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “raise up” (so KJV, ASV).

[1:6]  ¹¹ tn Heb “bitter.” Other translation options for this word in this context include “fierce” (NASB, NRSV); “savage” (NEB); or “grim.”

[1:6]  ¹² tn Heb “hasty, quick.” Some translate here “impetuous” (so NEB, NASB, NIV, NRSV) or “rash,” but in this context greed may very well be the idea. The Babylonians move quickly and recklessly ahead in their greedy quest to expand their empire.

[1:6]  ¹³ tn Heb “the open spaces.”

[11:19]  ¹⁴ tn Grk “Behold a man.”

[11:19]  ¹⁵ sn See the note on tax collectors in 5:46.

[11:19]  ¹⁶ sn Neither were they happy with Jesus (the Son of Man), even though he was the opposite of John and associated freely with people like tax collectors and sinners. Either way, God’s messengers were subject to complaint.

[11:19]  ¹⁷ tn Or “shown to be right.”

[11:19]  ¹⁸ tc Most witnesses (B² C D L Θ Ë¹ 33 Ï lat) have “children” (τέκνων, teknwn) here instead of “deeds” (ἔργων, ergwn), but since “children” is the reading of the parallel in Luke 7:35, scribes would be motivated to convert the less colorful “deeds” into more animate offspring of wisdom. Further, ἔργων enjoys support from א B* W (˹³) as well as early versional and patristic support.

[2:10]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “every man” (in a generic sense).

[2:10]  ²⁰ tn Or “poorer.”

[2:10]  ²¹ tn Grk “when they”; the referent (the guests) has been specified in the translation for clarity.