Judges 9:13

13. The vine Palestine has ever been celebrated for the luxuriant growth, abundance, and excellence of its grape-vines, and also for the immense clusters of grapes which they produced. Compare what is said of the clusters of Eshcol, Numbers 13:23. The sap of the vine is sometimes used in the East as medicine; its ripe fruit, both fresh and in its dried state as raisins, is highly esteemed; but its chief use was for the production of wine.

Which cheereth God and man Wine was largely used in the sacred services of Jehovah, being poured out as a drink offering to him. Comp. Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:13; Numbers 15:5. In this sense, like the olive-oil, it might be said to cheer and honour Him. So, too, libations of wine were offered in the heathen sacrifices. From its exhilarating qualities, wine was also said to gladden the heart of man. Psalms 104:15; Proverbs 31:6. It was used as a common and highly esteemed beverage among the Israelites, and it is often spoken of in Scripture as one of God’s blessings, just as are corn and oil, and milk and honey. Its moderate use seems never to have been regarded dangerous or evil, though drunkenness is everywhere condemned. The importance of the modern “wine question,” and zeal for the doctrine of total abstinence, must not run us into false expositions of Scripture, or lead us to conceal or to evade the facts of sacred history. Customs and circumstances now seem clearly to make it a duty of Christians to abstain totally from wine; and self-denial, in whatever form it may serve to promote the cause of morality and religion, becomes always the bounden duty of the man of God. But abstinence and self-denial in this respect are always to be urged on the ground of Christian expediency, not of specific scriptural command.