Proverbs 31:6-7
Let beer be for those who are perishing,
wine for those who are in anguish!
Let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.
Discuss.
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I couldn’t agree more. Beer and cheap wine (Two Buck Chuck) are for the toiling masses and homeless, respectively. We capitalists get drunk on Jack Daniels and Johnnie Walker. Except Doctor Dumbfuck, who sneaks into the operating room after hours to drink the sterilizing alcohol.
Yep, keep them drunk and they’ll stay stupid so we can keep picking their pockets.
interesting note, the word “perish” used to be rather specific in meaning, that being “thirsty”. Beer and wine were both invented accidentally, water getting into the grain storage turned out to be kinda tasty, it quenched the thirst and one drinking it would probably not going to contract Giardia, Cholera or Amoebic Dysentery from it.
The original wines, that can still be found in places like Spain and Portugal were brewed at close to 20% alcohol and were intended to thinned with water for much the same reason. It sterilized the water to make it drinkable.
When I was a little kid, we lived next door to a Portuguese family. The old patriarch had set up a little winery in the shed in their back yard, and my Pop ended up completely shit-faced drunk one day on about a 6oz glass of the stuff that guy was making. Pop told me later it was about the best stuff he’d ever tasted.
Those folks started with a single beat up old early-1950s garbage truck, (they were always working on that damn thing to keep it running) and now they’re the biggest private garbage hauling service in the State of California.
@2 Yes, it’s important to keep in mind that wine owes much of its popularity through the ages to bad water. The alcohol kills some of the germs, although not always enough of them. And then, of course, there’s the side benefit of the buzz you get from it, plus it puts the kids to sleep after their dinner of cabbage soup.
Whisky! And keep ’em comin’
No alcohol for my boy Muhammad. He preferred hashish.
And opium, when available.
And sex with a nine-year-old when he felt like it.
See – it was meant to be that the Homeless beg for money to spend on booze. Not sure why the Repukes think they should get a job.
@1 Except if you actually read the Proverb it’s not beer, but strong drink that the Prince or King gives to one who is perishing. The wine was around, but beer was definitely around, but may have been considered to be bread. Something no one would deny rich or poor. Part of ones daily needs in fact.
And the whole thing is taken out of context as it’s in the middle of the proverb. Now why it’s in with Solomon’s proverbs I don’t know. It’s not his proverb, but the mother of a King, of course giving her top billing would be like CNN hiring Alex Jones.
@2 Many things in science are well accidental. I don’t think what you are describing is likely to end up in beer. Just moldy wheat. Which can kill you when turned into bread. Grapes and some other fruits can become alcoholic under certain natural circumstances. So a man discovered this It’s entirely wine was discovered independently in many places. Certainly the folks in Judeah were drinking the local stuff for much of their history, though the Romans did bring about the Roman peace which made it possible to get wine from Spain, a real treat something different from that Greek stuff.
Beer may outdate bread, it’s easier to make, and requires similar or less resources. If you can make bread you can make beer and vice versa. So someone in various bakers unions created bread and on the side made beer. Or vice versa. Beer would seem to have more attraction to human beings in becoming tied to agriculture. So beer maybe the real reason why there is this thing called civilization. Bread is pretty good, but is it enough to get hunter gatherers to come and be part of the village? After all they could make it from time to time from wild wheat or other grains. Now beer and sex now that is enough to give up chasing deer, boars, ect and become a farmer. They get laid more often, and the beer has helped ugly people get laid like apparently forever. Still one gives up a lot of freedom for that beer, and then after a bit all there are fields of what, and no place to hunt. Or you at stuck hunting in lousy places with little game. Just what were Lewis and Clark and the Discovery guys complaining about during that winter on the coast, the locals knew they were on the best hunting grounds. Still the Company did run out of strong drink soon after Christmas, and some thought of going native.
@6 Of course in the context of the verses is strong drink or wine from the King’s or Prince’s stores. Given in particular the poor, or more likely supporters. So there is some politics thrown into this proverb. Though it has to be read in context with the rest of the verses to see that.
And actually the King or Prince here are not supposed to partake in strong drink or wine. Beer was probably just fine in moderation. So unfortunately Mel Brooks theory of it’s good to be the king may not apply to the Kingdom of Israel and Judah. Or mom’s are real killjoys.
Anyone who’s played with fermentation can tell you there’s not a lot that can kill you in yeast excrement. And if the yeast take hold the resulting alcohol will make an inhospitable environment for the kinds of bacteria that can do real harm. Couple degrees of heat while distilling yeast alcohol can do real harm so leave that to professionals.
Maybe a little diarrhea from pedioccocus but nothing severe.
Untreated water in ancient times was teeming with shit that can kill you. Sometimes literally shit.
Yeast is floating around everywhere and leave a vessel of sugary liquid open and in most cases yeast takes hold first and out competes harmful bacteria. Survival of the fittest.