Bible Strands
Isaiah 24:9
They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet describes a moment of divine judgment when the city is shattered and all communal celebration has ceased. The words — יֵמַ֥ר (ye.Mar) means it will be bitter, describing how שֵׁכָ֖ר (she.Khar), strong drink, loses all pleasure to its consumers. The thread — This reversal contrasts with Ecclesiastes 9:7, where drinking wine accompanies God-approved joy, and echoes Isaiah 5:22’s warning against pride in drinking while aligning with Psalms 69:12’s depiction of drinking reduced to mockery. Why it lands — The text demands recognition that judgment strips away earthly comforts, forcing readers to assess what they treat as essential joy against the reality of divine sovereignty.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
They shall not drink wine with a song; strong drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.
Cross-references
- Ecclesiastes 9:7 Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a cheerful heart, for God has already approved your works:
- Isaiah 5:22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine and champions in mixing strong drink,
- Psalms 69:12 Those who sit at the gate mock me, and I am the song of drunkards.
- Isaiah 5:11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning in pursuit of strong drink, who linger into the evening, to be inflamed by wine.
- Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who turn darkness to light and light to darkness, who replace bitter with sweet and sweet with bitter.
- Amos 6:5 You improvise songs on the harp like David and invent your own musical instruments.
- Amos 8:3 “In that day,” declares the Lord GOD, “the songs of the temple will turn to wailing. Many will be the corpses, strewn in silence everywhere!”
- Amos 8:10 I will turn your feasts into mourning and all your songs into lamentation. I will cause everyone to wear sackcloth and every head to be shaved. I will make it like a time of mourning for an only son, and its outcome like a bitter day.
- Ephesians 5:18 Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.
- Zechariah 9:15 The LORD of Hosts will shield them. They will destroy and conquer with slingstones; they will drink and roar as with wine. And they will be filled like sprinkling bowls, drenched like the corners of the altar.