“And take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down by gluttony, and drunkenness, and worries of this life, and that day come on you suddenly.
So they made their father drink wine that night as well. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he was not aware of it when she lay down or when she arose.
For even man does not know his time. Like fish taken in an evil net, and like birds caught in a snare, so the sons of men are snared in an evil time, when it come down on them suddenly.
And these too have gone astray through wine, and through strong drink wandered about. Priest and prophet have gone astray through strong drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they wander about through strong drink, they go astray in vision, they stumble in right-ruling.
“Do not drink wine or strong drink, you, nor your sons with you, when you go into the Tent of Meeting, lest you die – a law forever throughout your generations,
“But take heed to yourselves, for they shall deliver you up to councils and to congregations. You shall be beaten, and you shall be brought before rulers and sovereigns for My sake, for a witness to them.
“And that which fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with worries, and riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
But now I have written to you not to keep company with anyone called ‘a brother,’ if he is one who whores, or greedy of gain, or an idolater, or a reviler, or a drunkard, or a swindler – not even to eat with such a one.
“And it shall be, when he hears the words of this curse, that he should bless himself in his heart, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,’ in order to add drunkenness to thirst.
But the day of יהוה shall come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with intense heat, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up.
“Remember, then, how you have received, and heard. And watch and repent. If, then, you do not wake up, I shall come upon you as a thief, and you shall not know at all what hour I come upon you.