75 BIBLE REFERENCES ON DRINKING
One can examine the Bible to find abundant references condemning the use of alcoholic beverages. In the following list are scores of direct references, comprising a total of 162 verses. This is more scripture than will be found on the subjects of lying, adultery, swearing, stealing, Sabbath-breaking, cheating, hypocrisy, pride or even blasphemy. (Those passages which use the word "wine" in reference to sweet grape juice or other juices or to the grape itself are not included here.) In all, there are 627 references to drink, and drinking in the Bible.
[based on a Compilation by W. Albert Smith, Pastor First Baptist Church, Seffield, Alabama]
1. Genesis 9:20-26 The first drunkenness and the attendant immoral behavior.
2. Genesis 19:30-38 Drinking results in Lot's debauchery of his own daughters.
3. Genesis 27:25 Isaac was drinking when he mistakenly blessed Jacob.
Leviticus 10:9 An express command not to drink.
5. Numbers 6:3 The vow of the Nazarite.
6. Deuteronomy 21:20 Drinking leads to stubbornness, rebellion, and gluttony and brings dishonor to parents.
7. Deuteronomy 29:2-6 Abstinence assures a closer walk with God.
8. Judges 13:4,7,14 Samson's mother, an example of all womanhood, was commanded not to drink. Was alcohol recognized even then as a protoplasmic poison, injuring posterity?
9. 1 Samuel 1:14-15 Hannah, an example of honored motherhood, refrained from drinking wine.
10. 1 Samuel 25:32-38 Nabal, a rich but churlish man who opposed David, died after a drunken spree. He had already lost his wife's respect.
11. 2 Samuel 11-13 By having Uriah plied with strong drink, David attempted to cover his own sin.
12. 2 Samuel 13:28-29 Ammon, in a drunken brawl, was murdered by his brother, Absalom.
13. 1 Kings 16:8-10 While a king was "drinking himself drunk" in his own home, one of his captains conspired against him and slew him.
14. 1 Kings 20:12-21 Drink and war. While Ben Hadad and thirty-two other kings were drinking in their pavilions, a small band of Israel's men fell upon the Syrians and put them to flight.
15. Ester 1:5-12 Drink wrecks homes and separates man and wife. At a week's feast of food and wine, King Ahasuerus drunkenly tried to subject his queen to the beastly gaze of inebriated nobles, causing septation of the royal husband and wife.
16. Job 1:18-19 The children of Job were feasting and drinking when blown away in a cyclone.
17. Proverb 4:17 Violence results from drinking.
18. Proverb 20:1 No wise man will indulge.
19. Proverb 21:17 He that loveth wine is not rich.
20. Proverb 23:21 Drinking leads to poverty.
21. Proverb 23:29-30 Strong drink produces sorrow, contentions, wounds without cause, babblings, redness of eyes.
22. Proverb 23:31 Do not be tempted by intoxicants.
23. Proverb 23:32 God's Word warns that liquor eventually harms all who drink.
24. Proverb 23:33 It fills men's minds with adulterous and impure thoughts.
25. Proverb 23:33 It produces wilfulness and prevents reformation.
26. Proverb 23:34 It brings on insecurity.
27. Proverb 23:35 Insensibility follows drinking, rendering a man as a clod.
28. Proverb 23:35 Habit forming. One drink calls for another.
29. Proverb 31:4-4 Kings and all other rulers or officials with the weight of human lives in their control should not indulge.
30. Proverb 31:4-5 The only sanction for the use of strong drink was as a medicine of anesthetic for those about to die. We now know better medicines and anesthetics than whiskey, wine or beer.
31. Ecclesiastes 2:3 12:8 The writer of Ecclesiastes tried strong drink, but in the end was forced to admit that it too is vanity.
32. Ecclesiastes 10:17 Blessings are promised to the temperate and abstaining nation.
33. Isaiah 5:11-12 Woe to the drunkards.
34. Isaiah 5:22 More woes to them who drink.
35. Isaiah 22:13 Drinking and carnality go together. Leaves men hopeless.
36. Isaiah 24:9 Drink is bitter to them that drink it.
37. Isaiah 28:1 Woe to the drunkards of Ephraim.
38. Isaiah 28:3 The pride of drunkards will be trodden down.
39. Isaiah 28:7 Prophets and priests erred through drink.
40. Isaiah 28:7 Those who drink are set aside as useless.
41. Isaiah 28:7 Prophets and priests finally swallowed up by drink.
42. Isaiah 28:7 Drinking brings on spiritual blindness.
43. Isaiah 56:9-12 Rebuke to drinking church members, His watchmen.
44. Jeremiah 35:5,6,8,14 Total abstinence of the Rechabites cited as an example of obedience on the part of God's people.
45. Ezekiel 44:21 Priests are not to drink wine.
46. Daniel 1:5,8,16 10:3 God honored Daniel because he abstained from the king's wine. Daniel, the man, was true to the home training he had received as a boy.
47. Daniel 5:1 Belshazzar exhibited as an example of a leader who drank and taught his people to drink.
48. Daniel 5:2,23 A nation whose women drink.
49. Daniel 5:5-9,25-28 Ruin and downfall for nations whose rulers
and leaders cause them to drink.
50. Daniel 5:3 Balshazzar's sacrilege in using temple vessels for liquor.
51. Hosea 3:1 Part of degradation of Hosea's wife induced by drink.
52. Hosea 4:11 Strong drink and immorality go hand in hand.
53. Hosea 7:5 King and people reproved because of drinking.
54. Joel 1:5 Drunkards to awake from their drinking.
55. Joel 3:3 Young virtue sold for the price of drink.
56. Amos 2:8 Wine of the Condemned.
57. Amos 2:12 Pollution of the innocent.
58. Amos 4:1 Dissolute women, oppressors of the poor, call for their liquor.
59. Amos 6:6 Drinkers not concerned about God nor the welfare of others.
60. Nahum 1:10 Drunkards are to be destroyed.
61. Habakkuk 2:5 Arrogance inflamed by drink.
62. Habakkuk 2:15 Wrong to give one's neighbor drink. Social
drinking.
63. Habakkuk 2:16 Drink leads to shame and humiliation.
64. Matthew 24:48-51 Drunkards warned about the return of Christ and His judgement.
65. Luke 1:15 Greatness of John the Baptist linked with his total
abstinence.
66. Luke 12:45 Christ warns against being enmeshed in drink evils.
67. Luke 21:34 Warning against drunkenness and the cares of this life which follow, keeping one occupied to the exclusion of the Spirit.
68. Romans 13:13 All are admonished to walk honestly, not in rioting and drunkenness. It is not honest to be less than men, created in the image of God.
69. Romans 14:21 Drinking causes a brother to stumble. Importance of example.
70. 1 Corinthians 6:10 No drunkard shall inherit the kingdom of God.
71. 1 Corinthians 11:25 The Lord's Supper no place for wine. Word "wine: not even used. Instead all accounts say "the cup" or "fruit of the vine."
72. Galatians 5:21 Revelers in drunkenness shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.
73. Ephesians 5:18 Direct command that exhilaration shall be of the Spirit and not by wine.
74. 1 Thessalonians 5:7 Sobriety enjoyed upon the Thessalonians. Children of light must not be overcome by darkness.
75. 1 Timothy 3:3,8,11,12 Church officers must not drink; neither should their families.