Bible Dictionary
Drunk
To be drunk is to be intoxicated through excessive use of alcoholic drink. Scripture repeatedly condemns drunkenness as sinful and also uses the image figuratively for overwhelming sorrow or divine judgment.
Definition
To be drunk is to be intoxicated through excessive use of alcoholic drink. Scripture treats drunkenness as a serious sin and also uses drunkenness figuratively for overwhelming sorrow or exposure to divine wrath.
Biblical Usage
Noah’s intoxication is the first recorded case. Drunkenness is repeatedly condemned in the New Testament. Scripture also speaks of people as drunk with sorrow or with the wine of God’s wrath, and uses “to add drunkenness to thirst” for destructive rebellion.
Historical Background
The supplied material indicates that excessive drinking was not uncommon among the Israelites. The expression “to destroy the moist with the dry” explains the Revised Version’s rendering of the proverb about drunkenness and thirst.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Easton's Bible Dictionary
The first case of intoxication on record is that of Noah (Gen. 9:21). The sin of drunkenness is frequently and strongly condemned (Rom. 13:13; 1 Cor. 6:9, 10; Eph. 5:18; 1 Thess. 5:7, 8). The sin of drinking to excess seems to have been not uncommon among the Israelites. The word is used figuratively, when men are spoken of as being drunk with sorrow, and with the wine of God’s wrath (Isa. 63:6; Jer. 51:57; Ezek. 23:33). To “add drunkenness to thirst” (Deut. 29:19, A.V.) is a proverbial expression, rendered in the Revised Version “to destroy the moist with the dry”, i.e., the well-watered equally with the dry land, meaning that the effect of such walking in the imagination of their own hearts would be to destroy one and all.