They that tarry long at the wine; they that go to seek mixed wine.
To tarry long at the wine and to go to seek mixed wine is to linger over wine and to seek out mixed or strong drink, which is indulgence in intoxicating liquor. Those who do so are those who have woe and sorrow and contention and babbling or senseless talk and wounds or injuries without cause and redness of eyes. The verse was given by God as a warning to lovers of strong drink, setting forth the influence and result of gratifying the appetite for drink.
Such lingering and seeking show an appetite being cultivated, and the warning reaches even moderate use, for wine and cider can gradually lead toward drunkenness, disorder the nervous system, weaken resolution and reason, cloud the powers God has given, bring appetite to rule the life, and belong to the evil of intemperance. This drinking leads to drunkenness that takes away reason and the ability to act rightly, impairs judgment, brings madness, harms people, shortens life, and violates God's laws.
It is a vivid picture of degradation and enslavement bringing sorrow and woe, in which the drinker may recognize the misery yet remain powerless to escape and return to it. Since strong drink can bring fatal harm even in a supposedly small amount, to stop transgression and preserve health and to abstain entirely is the only safety. The bewildered, beclouded and insane condition of the drunkard, who loses the sense of obligation to family and friends and barters away house and food and clothing to gratify craving, illustrates professed Christians made drunken with the cares of this life and the crazing, benumbing appetite for worldly gain. That appetite eclipses the attractions of heaven, benumbs spiritual powers, and causes the loss of heavenly mansions and peace of mind and joy of soul and the approbation of God, while its victims toil on to receive death, so that love of the world at such sacrifice is an even greater exhibition of insanity than that of the drunkard.
To tarry long at the wine and to go to seek mixed wine is to linger over wine and to seek out mixed or strong drink, which is indulgence in intoxicating liquor. Those who do so are those who have woe and sorrow and contention and babbling or senseless talk and wounds or injuries without cause and redness of eyes. The verse was given by God as a warning to lovers of strong drink, setting forth the influence and result of gratifying the appetite for drink.
Such lingering and seeking show an appetite being cultivated, and the warning reaches even moderate use, for wine and cider can gradually lead toward drunkenness, disorder the nervous system, weaken resolution and reason, cloud the powers God has given, bring appetite to rule the life, and belong to the evil of intemperance. This drinking leads to drunkenness that takes away reason and the ability to act rightly, impairs judgment, brings madness, harms people, shortens life, and violates God's laws.
It is a vivid picture of degradation and enslavement bringing sorrow and woe, in which the drinker may recognize the misery yet remain powerless to escape and return to it. Since strong drink can bring fatal harm even in a supposedly small amount, to stop transgression and preserve health and to abstain entirely is the only safety. The bewildered, beclouded and insane condition of the drunkard, who loses the sense of obligation to family and friends and barters away house and food and clothing to gratify craving, illustrates professed Christians made drunken with the cares of this life and the crazing, benumbing appetite for worldly gain. That appetite eclipses the attractions of heaven, benumbs spiritual powers, and causes the loss of heavenly mansions and peace of mind and joy of soul and the approbation of God, while its victims toil on to receive death, so that love of the world at such sacrifice is an even greater exhibition of insanity than that of the drunkard.