Do not drink wine nor strong drink, thou, nor thy sons with thee, when ye go into the tabernacle of the congregation, lest ye die: [it shall be] a statute for ever throughout your generations:
Ver. 9. Do not drink wine, nor strong drink.] As some are of opinion Nadab and Abihu had done; which miscarriage of theirs occasioned this precept. a The perpetual equity whereof is, that ministers be no wine bibbers or tipplers or drunken sots. 1Ti 3:3 Why should it be said as of old, "They have erred because of wine, and have gone out of the way because of strong drink, even the priest and the prophet?" Isa 28:7 Drunkenness is a crime in all, but it is a kind of sacrilege in ministers. And if other drunkards deserve double punishments for their misdemeanours, as Aristotle b judgeth, first for their drunkenness, and then for the sin committed in and by their drunkenness what do drunken priests? Isa 56:12
a Ex malis moribus bonae leges.
b διπλα τα επιτιμια. - Arist., Ethic., lib. iii. cap. 5.