# 22 Bible Verses About Wine

Source: https://christianpure.com/learn/bible-verses-wine/
Publisher: Christian Pure (https://christianpure.com/)
Published: 2026-11-12
Updated: 2026-10-18

Scripture treats wine as a gift, a sign of blessing and a drink for feasts, and it warns against drunkenness. Psalm 104:14-15 lists wine among what God gives man to bring forth from the earth, and Ephesians 5:18 commands, "do not get drunk with wine."

Jesus turns water into wine at Cana (John 2:1-11) and gives thanks over the cup at the Last Supper (Matthew 26:27-29). Noah's wine in Genesis 9:21 and Melchizedek's in Genesis 14:18 are *yayin*, a common Hebrew word for wine. Isaac's blessing in Genesis 27:28 uses *tirosh*, the word the English Standard Version translates "new wine" in Hosea 4:11, where it is listed among the things that "take away the understanding." In the New Testament, the wine at Cana (John 2:3), the wine Ephesians 5:18 warns against getting drunk with, and the wine Paul recommends to Timothy (1 Timothy 5:23) are all *oinos*.

## Wine as a gift, a sign of blessing and a remedy

### Genesis 27:28

> "May God give you of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth and plenty of grain and wine."

**Reflection:** Isaac speaks this blessing over Jacob, whom Rebekah has dressed in Esau's best garments (27:15). The smell of the garments prompts the line before it: "the smell of my son is as the smell of a field that the LORD has blessed!" Grain and wine stand with dew and rich soil as the goods of that blessed field, and the blessing goes on to lordship over peoples and brothers (27:29).

### Genesis 14:18

> "And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)"

**Reflection:** Abram is returning from his defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings with him (14:17) when Melchizedek, king of Salem and "priest of God Most High," brings out bread and wine. Melchizedek then blesses Abram and blesses God Most High, and Abram gives him a tenth of everything (14:19-20).

### Psalm 104:14-15

> "You cause the grass to grow for the livestock and plants for man to cultivate, that he may bring forth food from the earth and wine to gladden the heart of man, oil to make his face shine and bread to strengthen man's heart."

**Reflection:** Psalm 104 praises God as the one who waters the mountains (104:13) and makes plants grow "for man to cultivate," that man may bring forth food and wine from the earth. Wine is listed with oil and bread, and each is named with what it does for a person: wine gladdens the heart, oil makes the face shine, bread strengthens.

### Ecclesiastes 9:7

> "Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart, for God has already approved what you do."

**Reflection:** The Preacher has just said that the dead "know nothing" and have no more share in what is done under the sun (9:5-6). Bread eaten with joy and wine drunk with a merry heart belong to his counsel for the living, with white garments, oil on the head and life with the wife one loves (9:8-9). The reason he gives is in the verse itself: "God has already approved what you do."

### Amos 9:14

> "I will restore the fortunes of my people Israel, and they shall rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their fruit."

**Reflection:** In the closing promise of Amos (9:11-15), the LORD will restore the fortunes of "my people Israel," and they will rebuild cities, plant vineyards and drink their wine. Earlier the prophet told those who trampled the poor, "you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine" (Amos 5:11). The verse before 9:14 adds that "the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and all the hills shall flow with it."

### Joel 3:18

> "And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD..."

**Reflection:** The line "the mountains shall drip sweet wine" also appears in Amos 9:13. In Joel it comes with milk flowing from the hills, water in all the streambeds of Judah, and a fountain coming out of the house of the LORD. The verse before names the setting: the LORD dwells in Zion, and Jerusalem "shall be holy."

### 1 Timothy 5:23

> "(No longer drink only water, but use a little wine for the sake of your stomach and your frequent ailments.)"

**Reflection:** Timothy has been drinking only water, and Paul tells him to take "a little wine" for his stomach and his frequent ailments. The advice is about his health. It comes straight after a warning against hasty laying on of hands and the charge "keep yourself pure" (5:22).

## Wine at feasts, at Cana and at the Last Supper

### Nehemiah 8:10

> "Then he said to them, 'Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.'"

**Reflection:** The people have wept on hearing the words of the Law read (8:9). The leaders tell them the day is holy and not a day for mourning: they are to "eat the fat and drink sweet wine" and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready. Verse 12 records that they did, and made great rejoicing, "because they had understood the words that were declared to them."

### Isaiah 25:6

> "On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined."

**Reflection:** Isaiah describes a feast the LORD of hosts will make "on this mountain" for all peoples, with rich food and aged wine "well refined." The next two verses say what else he will do on that mountain: remove the veil spread over all nations, swallow up death forever and wipe away tears from all faces (25:7-8).

### John 2:9-10

> "When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, 'Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.'"

**Reflection:** When the wine ran out at a wedding in Cana, Jesus' mother told him, "They have no wine" (2:3). He had the servants fill six stone water jars, kept for the Jewish rites of purification and holding twenty or thirty gallons each, and the master of the feast, not knowing where the wine came from, told the bridegroom he had kept the good wine until now. John calls this "the first of his signs" and says that by it Jesus "manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him" (2:11).

### Matthew 26:27-29

> "And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, 'Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.'"

**Reflection:** Matthew sets this meal at the Passover (26:17-19). Jesus gives thanks over the cup and calls it "my blood of the covenant," and in the next sentence he calls what is in it "this fruit of the vine," which he will not drink again until he drinks it new in his Father's kingdom. Churches read "this is my blood" in different ways. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1376), quoting the Council of Trent, teaches a change of "the whole substance of the wine into the substance of his blood"; Luther's Small Catechism confesses "the true body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ under the bread and wine"; and the Westminster Confession says that worthy receivers feed upon Christ "really and indeed, yet not carnally and corporally but spiritually."

## Wine as an image of love, of the new, and of God's judgment

### Song of Solomon 1:2

> "Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth! For your love is better than wine."

**Reflection:** The Song's opening lines, which the ESV gives to the woman, measure the man's love against wine and find it better. In 1:4 the voices the ESV heads "Others" take up the same comparison: "we will extol your love more than wine."

### Luke 5:37-38

> "And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins and it will be spilled, and the skins will be destroyed. But new wine must be put into fresh wineskins."

**Reflection:** Jesus tells this parable when he is told that his disciples eat and drink while the disciples of John and of the Pharisees fast often (5:33). New wine put into old wineskins bursts them, so that wine and skins are both lost; new wine must go into fresh skins. The next verse adds: "no one after drinking old wine desires new, for he says, 'The old is good.'"

### Psalm 75:8

> "For in the hand of the LORD there is a cup with foaming wine, well mixed, and he pours out from it, and all the wicked of the earth shall drain it down to the dregs."

**Reflection:** The psalm says it is God who executes judgment, "putting down one and lifting up another" (75:7). His judgment is pictured as a cup of foaming, well-mixed wine in his hand, which all the wicked of the earth must drink down to the dregs.

### Revelation 14:10

> "he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb."

**Reflection:** A third angel warns that whoever worships the beast and receives its mark will drink "the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger." Just before, a second angel announces the fall of Babylon, "she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality" (14:8). Psalm 75:8 uses a similar picture.

## Warnings against drunkenness

### Genesis 9:20-21

> "Noah began to be a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent."

**Reflection:** After the flood Noah plants a vineyard, drinks its wine, becomes drunk and lies uncovered in his tent. His son Ham sees his nakedness and tells his brothers; Shem and Japheth walk in backward and cover him; and when Noah awakes "from his wine" he curses Ham's son Canaan (9:22-25).

### Proverbs 20:1

> "Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise."

**Reflection:** Wine and strong drink are spoken of here as people, a mocker and a brawler. The second line places the folly in the one who is "led astray by it."

### Proverbs 23:29-32

> "Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder."

**Reflection:** Six questions about woe, strife and wounds without cause are answered with "Those who tarry long over wine." The warning is against looking at wine when it is red and goes down smoothly, because in the end it bites like a serpent. The verses after describe the drinker's confusion and end with his own words: "When shall I awake? I must have another drink" (23:35).

### Isaiah 5:11

> "Woe to those who rise early in the morning, that they may run after strong drink, who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them!"

**Reflection:** This woe is against people who start drinking in the morning and are still at it late in the evening. The next verse says what they miss: they have lyre, harp, tambourine, flute and wine at their feasts, "but they do not regard the deeds of the LORD." A later woe in the same chapter falls on "those who are heroes at drinking wine" (5:22).

### Hosea 4:11

> "Whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding."

**Reflection:** Hosea charges Israel with having "forsaken the LORD to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine" (4:10-11). The next verse turns straight to idolatry: "My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles."

### Proverbs 31:4-5

> "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted."

**Reflection:** These are the words King Lemuel's mother taught him (31:1). Kings and rulers are not to drink wine or strong drink, lest they forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of the afflicted. The next two verses give strong drink and wine to the one who is perishing and to those in bitter distress: "let them drink and forget their poverty" (31:6-7).

### Ephesians 5:18

> "And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit."

**Reflection:** Paul calls getting drunk with wine "debauchery" and sets against it being filled with the Spirit. The verses before frame the command as walking "not as unwise but as wise" (5:15), and the verses after describe the Spirit-filled life: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, melody to the Lord, and thanks "always and for everything" (5:19-20).

## Who in Scripture is told not to drink wine

Several prohibitions are tied to an office, a vow or a calling. Aaron and his sons were not to drink wine or strong drink when they went into the tent of meeting (Leviticus 10:9). A Nazirite separated himself from wine, from vinegar made from it and from anything the grapevine produces for all the days of the vow (Numbers 6:3-4). Lemuel's mother tells kings not to drink (Proverbs 31:4), and Luke 1:15 says of John the Baptist that "he must not drink wine or strong drink." In Jeremiah 35 the Rechabites refuse the wine Jeremiah sets before them because their ancestor Jonadab commanded it, and the LORD promises that Jonadab "shall never lack a man to stand before me" (35:19).

Two New Testament verses bear on [drinking alcohol](https://christianpure.com/learn/bible-verses-drinking-alcohol/) as a Christian: Romans 14:21 counts drinking wine among the things it is good to give up if they cause a brother to stumble, and 1 Timothy 3:8 requires that deacons not be "addicted to much wine."

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