Ephesians 5:18

Amplified Bible

Do not get drunk with wine, for that is wickedness (corruption, stupidity), but be filled with the [Holy] Spirit and constantly guided by Him.

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
Don't be drunk with wine, which will ruin your life, but be filled with the Spirit.

Revised Standard Version
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

Tyndale New Testament (1525)
and be not dronke with wyne wherin is excesse: but be fulfilled with the sprete

Hebrew Names Version
Don't be drunken with wine, in which is an abandoned life, but be filled with the Spirit,

New American Standard Bible
And do not get drunk with wine, in which there is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

New Century Version
Do not be drunk with wine, which will ruin you, but be filled with the Spirit.

Update Bible Version
And don't be drunk with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;

Webster's Bible Translation
And be not drunk with wine, in which is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

English Standard Version
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,

World English Bible
Don't be drunken with wine, in which is an abandoned life, but be filled with the Spirit,

Wesley's New Testament (1755)
And be not drunken with wine,

Weymouth's New Testament
Do not over-indulge in wine--a thing in which excess is so easy--

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And nyle ye be drunkun of wyn, in which is letcherie, but be ye fillid with the Hooli Goost; and speke ye to you silf in salmes,

English Revised Version
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;

Berean Standard Bible
Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Contemporary English Version
Don't destroy yourself by getting drunk, but let the Spirit fill your life.

American Standard Version
And be not drunken with wine, wherein is riot, but be filled with the Spirit;

Bible in Basic English
And do not take overmuch wine by which one may be overcome, but be full of the Spirit;

Complete Jewish Bible
Don't get drunk with wine, because it makes you lose control. Instead, keep on being filled with the Spirit —

Darby Translation
And be not drunk with wine, in which is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

International Standard Version
Stop gettingDo not get">[fn] drunk with wine, which leads to wild living, but keep on being filled with the Spirit.Proverbs 20:1; 23:29-30; Isaiah 5:11,22; Luke 21:34;">[xr]

Etheridge Translation
And be not drunk with wine, in which is intemperance, but be filled with the Spirit.

Murdock Translation
And be not drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness; but be ye filled with the spirit.

King James Version (1611)
And bee not drunke with wine, wherein is excesse: but bee filled with the Spirit:

New Living Translation
Don't be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit,

New Life Bible
Do not get drunk with wine. That leads to wild living. Instead, be filled with the Holy Spirit.

New Revised Standard
Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit,

Geneva Bible (1587)
And be not drunke with wine, wherein is excesse: but be fulfilled with the Spirit,

George Lamsa Translation
And do not become drunk with wine, wherein is intemperance; but be filled with the Spirit,

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And be not getting drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be getting filled in Spirit; -

Douay-Rheims Bible
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is luxury: but be ye filled with the Holy Spirit,

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And be not drunke with wine, wherin is excesse: but be fylled with the spirite,

Good News Translation
Do not get drunk with wine, which will only ruin you; instead, be filled with the Spirit.

Christian Standard Bible®
And don’t get drunk with wine, which leads to reckless living, but be filled by the Spirit:

King James Version
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

Lexham English Bible
And do not be drunk with wine (in which is dissipation), but be filled by the Spirit,

Literal Translation
And "do not be drunk with wine," in which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, Prov. 23:31

Young's Literal Translation
and be not drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in the Spirit,

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
and be not dronken with wyne, wherin is excesse: but be full of the sprete

Mace New Testament (1729)
do not drink to excess, for that tends to dissoluteness, but be regal'd with spiritual entertainments:

THE MESSAGE
Don't drink too much wine. That cheapens your life. Drink the Spirit of God, huge draughts of him. Sing hymns instead of drinking songs! Sing songs from your heart to Christ. Sing praises over everything, any excuse for a song to God the Father in the name of our Master, Jesus Christ.

New English Translation
And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit,

New King James Version
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

Simplified Cowboy Version
Stay away from the whiskey. You think you can control it, but it's the other way around. Instead, let the Holy Ghost guide your every waking moment.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

Legacy Standard Bible
And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit,

Contextual Overview

³But sexual immorality and all [moral] impurity [indecent, offensive behavior] or greed must not even be hinted at among you, as is proper among saints [for as believers our way of life, whether in public or in private, reflects the validity of our faith]. ⁴Let there be no filthiness and silly talk, or coarse [obscene or vulgar] joking, because such things are not appropriate [for believers]; but instead speak of your thankfulness [to God]. ⁵For be sure of this: no immoral, impure, or greedy person—for that one is [in effect] an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God [for such a person places a higher value on something other than God]. ⁶Let no one deceive you with empty arguments [that encourage you to sin], for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience [those who habitually sin]. ⁷So do not participate or even associate with them [in the rebelliousness of sin]. ⁸For once you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord; walk as children of Light [live as those who are native-born to the Light] ⁹(for the fruit [the effect, the result] of the Light consists in all goodness and righteousness and truth), ¹⁰trying to learn [by experience] what is pleasing to the Lord [and letting your lifestyles be examples of what is most acceptable to Him—your behavior expressing gratitude to God for your salvation]. ¹¹Do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness, but instead expose them [by exemplifying personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character]; ¹²for it is disgraceful even to mention the things that such people practice in secret.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

be not: Genesis 9:21, Genesis 19:32-35, Deuteronomy 21:20, Psalms 69:12, Proverbs 20:1, Proverbs 23:20, Proverbs 23:21, Proverbs 23:29-35, Isaiah 5:11-13, Isaiah 5:22, Matthew 24:49, Luke 12:45, Luke 21:34, Romans 13:13, 1 Corinthians 5:11, 1 Corinthians 6:10, 1 Corinthians 11:21, Galatians 5:21, 1 Thessalonians 5:7

excess: Matthew 23:25, 1 Peter 4:3, 1 Peter 4:4

but: Psalms 63:3-5, Song of Solomon 1:4, Song of Solomon 7:9, Isaiah 25:6, Isaiah 55:1, Zechariah 9:15-17, Luke 11:13, Acts 2:13-18, Acts 11:24, Galatians 5:22-25

Reciprocal: Leviticus 10:9 - Do not Numbers 6:3 - General Deuteronomy 29:6 - neither have Ruth 3:7 - his heart 1 Samuel 25:36 - merry 1 Kings 20:12 - drinking 2 Kings 3:15 - bring me Esther 1:10 - the heart Psalms 16:5 - of my Psalms 47:6 - to God Psalms 104:15 - wine Proverbs 23:30 - tarry Proverbs 25:16 - lest Proverbs 31:7 - General Ecclesiastes 2:3 - yet Ecclesiastes 10:19 - and wine Song of Solomon 2:12 - time Song of Solomon 5:1 - eat Isaiah 24:9 - General Jeremiah 35:7 - all Hosea 7:5 - made Zechariah 9:17 - corn Zechariah 10:7 - and their Mark 14:26 - sung Luke 1:15 - filled Luke 1:41 - was Luke 22:18 - the fruit John 7:37 - drink John 15:11 - your Acts 2:4 - filled Acts 6:3 - full Acts 13:52 - with the Romans 8:13 - through Romans 15:13 - fill 1 Timothy 3:3 - Not given to wine 1 Timothy 5:23 - General 2 Timothy 1:14 - by the Titus 1:7 - not given to wine

Cross-References

Genesis 4:17
Cain knew his wife [one of Adam's descendants] and she conceived and gave birth to Enoch; and Cain built a city and named it Enoch, after the name of his son.

Genesis 5:14
So Kenan lived nine hundred and ten years, and he died.

Genesis 5:15
When Mahalalel was sixty-five years old, he became the father of Jared.

1 Chronicles 1:3
Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech,

Luke 3:37
the son of Methuselah, the son of Enoch, the son of Jared, the son of Mahalaleel, the son of Cainan,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess,.... The sin of drunkenness here dehorted from, is a custom, or habit, of voluntary excessive drinking of any strong liquor, whereby the mind is disturbed, and deprived of the use of reason: though wine is only here mentioned, that being the usual liquor drank in the eastern countries, yet the same holds good of any other strong liquor, as of that; nor is drinking wine for necessary use prohibited, nor for honest delight and lawful pleasure; but excessive drinking of it, and this voluntary, and with design, and on purpose; otherwise persons may be overtaken and intoxicated, through ignorance of the strength of the liquor, and their own weakness; and it is a custom, or habit of excessive drinking, for not a single act, but a series of actions, a course of living in this sin, denominates a man a drunkard; and generally speaking, excessive drinking deprives persons of the use of reason, though not always; and such are criminal, who are mighty to drink wine, and strong to mingle strong drink; as are also such, who though not guilty of this sin themselves, are the means of it in others: the sin is very sinful; it is one of the works of the flesh; it is an abuse of the creature; it is opposed to walking honestly; for it persons are to be excluded from the communion of the church; and, without the grace of true repentance, shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven: many things might be said to dissuade from it; it hurts the mind, memory, and judgment; deprives of reason, and sets a man below a beast; it brings diseases on the body, and wastes the estate; it unfits for business and duty; it opens a door for every sin, and exposes to shame and danger; and therefore should be carefully avoided, and especially by professors of religion:

but be filled with the Spirit; that is, "with the Holy Spirit", as read the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions; with the gifts and graces of the Spirit: some have been filled with them in an extraordinary way, as the apostles on the day of Pentecost; and others in an ordinary manner, as common believers; and who may be said to be filled with the Spirit, as with wine, or instead of it, or in opposition to it, when the love of God is shed abroad in their hearts by the Spirit, which is compared to wine, for its antiquity, purity, and refreshing nature; and they are filled with it, who have a comfortable sense of it, and a firm persuasion of interest in it, and are delighted with the views of it, and are as it were inebriated with it; and they are filled with the Spirit, in whom his grace is a well of living water, and out of whose belly flow rivers of it; and who have a large measure of spiritual peace and joy, expressed in the following manner.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

And be not drunk with wine - A danger to which they were exposed and a vice to which those around them were much addicted. Compare notes on Luke 21:34. It is not improbable that in this verse there is an allusion to the orgies of Bacchus, or to the festivals celebrated in honor of that pagan god. He was “the god of wine,” and during those festivals, men and women regarded it as an acceptable act of worship to become intoxicated, and with wild songs and cries to run through streets, and fields, and vineyards. To these things the apostle opposes psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, as much more appropriate modes of devotion, and would have the Christian worship stand out in strong contrast with the wild and dissolute habits of the pagan. Plato says, that while those abominable ceremonies in the worship of Bacchus continued, it was difficult to find in all Attica a single sober man. Rosenmuller, Alt. u. neu. Morgenland, in loc. On the subject of wine, and the wines used by the ancients, see the notes on John 2:10-11. We may learn from this verse:

(1) That it was not uncommon in those times to become intoxicated on wine; and,

(2) That it was positively forbidden. All intoxication is prohibited in the Scriptures - no matter by what means it is produced. There is, in fact, but one thing that produces intoxication. It is “alcohol” - the poisonous substance produced by fermentation. This substance is neither created nor changed, increased nor diminished, by distillation. It exists in the cider, the beer, and the wine, after they are fermented, and the whole process of distillation consists in driving it off by heat, and collecting it in a concentrated form, and so that it may be preserved. But distilling does not “make” it, nor change it. Alcohol is precisely the same thing in the wine that it is in the brandy after it is distilled; in the cider or the beer that it is in the whisky or the rum; and why is it right to become intoxicated on it in one form rather than in another? Since therefore there is danger of intoxication in the use of wine, as well as in the use of ardent spirits, why should we not abstain from one as well as the other? How can a man prove that it is right for him to drink alcohol in the form of wine, and that it is wrong for me to drink it in the form of brandy or rum?

Wherein is excess - There has been much difference of opinion about the word rendered here as excess - ἀσωτία asōtia. It occurs only in two other places in the New Testament, where it is rendered “riot;” Titus 1:6; 1 Peter 4:4. The “adjective” occurs once Luke 15:13, where it is rendered riotous. The word (derived, according to Passow, from α a, the alpha privative (not), and σώζω sōzō - to save, deliver) means that which is unsafe, not to be recovered; lost beyond recovery; then that which is abandoned to sensuality and lust; dissoluteness, debauchery, revelry. The meaning here is, that all this follows the use of wine. Is it proper then for Christians to be in the habit of drinking it? “Wine is so frequently the cause of this, by the ungrateful abuse of the bounty of providence in giving it, that the enormity is represented by a very strong and beautiful “figure” as contained in the very liquor.” Doddridge.

But be filled with the Spirit - The Holy Spirit. How much more appropriate to Christians than to be filled with the spirit of intoxication and revelry! Let Christians, when about to indulge in a glass of wine, think of this admonition. Let them remember that their bodies should be the temple of the Holy Spirit, rather than a receptacle for intoxicating drinks. Was any man ever made a better Christian by the use of wine? Was any minister ever better suited to counsel an anxious sinner, or to pray, or to preach the gospel, by the use of intoxicating drinks? Let the history of wine-drinking and intemperate clergymen answer.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess — This is a farther allusion to the Bacchanalian mysteries; in them his votaries got drunk, and ran into all manner of excesses. Plato, though he forbade drunkenness in general, yet allowed that the people should get drunk in the solemnities of that god who invented wine. And indeed this was their common custom; when they had offered their sacrifices they indulged themselves in drunkenness, and ran into all kinds of extravagance. Hence it is probable that μεθυω, to get drunk, is derived from μετα, after, and θυω, to sacrifice; for, having completed their sacrifices, they indulged themselves in wine. The word ασωτια, which we translate excess, means profligacy and debauchery of every kind; such as are the general concomitants of drunkenness, and especially among the votaries of Bacchus in Greece and Italy.

But be filled with the Spirit — The heathen priests pretended to be filled with the influence of the god they worshipped; and it was in these circumstances that they gave out their oracles. See a remarkable instance of this quoted in the note on "Luke 9:39", where the case of a Bacchanalian is described. The apostle exhorts the Ephesians not to resemble these, but, instead of being filled with wine, to be filled with the Spirit of God; in consequence of which, instead of those discoveries of the Divine will to which in their drunken worship the votaries of Bacchus pretended, they should be wise indeed, and should understand what the will of the Lord is.