Bible Browser

Table Etiquette

¹² Are you seated at the table of the great?^*
   Do not be greedy at it,
   and do not say, ‘How much food there is here!’
¹³ Remember that a greedy eye is a bad thing.
   What has been created more greedy than the eye?
   Therefore it sheds tears for any reason.
¹⁴ Do not reach out your hand for everything you see,
   and do not crowd your neighbour^* at the dish.
¹⁵ Judge your neighbour’s feelings by your own,
   and in every matter be thoughtful.
¹⁶ Eat what is set before you like a well-bred person,^*
   and do not chew greedily, or you will give offence.
¹⁷ Be the first to stop, as befits good manners,
   and do not be insatiable, or you will give offence.
¹⁸ If you are seated among many others,
   do not help yourself^* before they do.

Temperance in Drinking Wine

²⁵ Do not try to prove your strength by wine-drinking,
   for wine has destroyed many.
²⁶ As the furnace tests the work of the smith,^*
   so wine tests hearts when the insolent quarrel.
²⁷ Wine is very life to human beings
   if taken in moderation.
What is life to one who is without wine?
   It has been created to make people happy.
²⁸ Wine drunk at the proper time and in moderation
   is rejoicing of heart and gladness of soul.
²⁹ Wine drunk to excess leads to bitterness of spirit,
   to quarrels and stumbling.
³⁰ Drunkenness increases the anger of a fool to his own hurt,
   reducing his strength and adding wounds.
³¹ Do not reprove your neighbour at a banquet of wine,
   and do not despise him in his merrymaking;
speak no word of reproach to him,
   and do not distress him by making demands of him.

Etiquette at a Banquet

32If they make you master of the feast, do not exalt yourself;
   be among them as one of their number.
Take care of them first and then sit down;
²   when you have fulfilled all your duties, take your place,
so that you may be merry along with them
   and receive a garland for your excellent leadership.

The Seventy Weeks

20 While I was speaking, and was praying and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God on behalf of the holy mountain of my God— ²¹while I was speaking in prayer, the man Gabriel, whom I had seen before in a vision, came to me in swift flight at the time of the evening sacrifice. ²²He came^* and said to me, ‘Daniel, I have now come out to give you wisdom and understanding. ²³At the beginning of your supplications a word went out, and I have come to declare it, for you are greatly beloved. So consider the word and understand the vision:

24 ‘Seventy weeks are decreed for your people and your holy city: to finish the transgression, to put an end to sin, and to atone for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal both vision and prophet, and to anoint a most holy place.^{* 25}Know therefore and understand: from the time that the word went out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the time of an anointed prince, there shall be seven weeks; and for sixty-two weeks it shall be built again with streets and moat, but in a troubled time. ²⁶After the sixty-two weeks, an anointed one shall be cut off and shall have nothing, and the troops of the prince who is to come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. Its^* end shall come with a flood, and to the end there shall be war. Desolations are decreed. ²⁷He shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall make sacrifice and offering cease; and in their place^* shall be an abomination that desolates, until the decreed end is poured out upon the desolator.’