"You and your sons are not to enter the Tent of my presence after drinking wine or beer; if you do, you will die. This is a law to be kept by all your descendants.

You must distinguish between what belongs to God and what is for general use, between what is ritually clean and what is unclean.

Benhadad received Ahab's answer as he and his allies, the other rulers, were drinking in their tents. He ordered his men to get ready to attack the city, and so they moved into position.

The attack began at noon, as Benhadad and his thirty-two allies were getting drunk in their tents.

He ordered, "Take them alive, no matter whether they are coming to fight or to ask for peace."

and each one killed the man he fought. The Syrians fled, with the Israelites in hot pursuit, but Benhadad escaped on horseback, accompanied by some of the cavalry.

At the king's command the decree was made public in the capital city of Susa, and runners carried the news to the provinces. The king and Haman sat down and had a drink while the city of Susa was being thrown into confusion.

But a country is fortunate to have a king who makes his own decisions and leaders who eat at the proper time, who control themselves and don't get drunk.

Even the prophets and the priests are so drunk that they stagger. They have drunk so much wine and liquor that they stumble in confusion. The prophets are too drunk to understand the visions that God sends, and the priests are too drunk to decide the cases that are brought to them.

The tables where they sit are all covered with vomit, and not a clean spot is left.

While they were drinking, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver cups and bowls which his father Nebuchadnezzar had carried off from the Temple in Jerusalem. The king sent for them so that he, his noblemen, his wives, and his concubines could drink out of them.

and praised gods made of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

The LORD says, "Wine, both old and new, is robbing my people of their senses!

They ask for revelations from a piece of wood! A stick tells them what they want to know! They have left me. Like a woman who becomes a prostitute, they have given themselves to other gods.

The LORD says, "People deceive the king and his officers by their evil plots.

On the day of the king's celebration they made the king and his officials drunk and foolish with wine.

Wealth is deceitful. Greedy people are proud and restless---like death itself they are never satisfied. That is why they conquer nation after nation for themselves.

Finally Herodias got her chance. It was on Herod's birthday, when he gave a feast for all the top government officials, the military chiefs, and the leading citizens of Galilee.

With many vows he said to her, "I swear that I will give you anything you ask for, even as much as half my kingdom!"

The girl hurried back at once to the king and demanded, "I want you to give me here and now the head of John the Baptist on a plate!"

So he sent off a guard at once with orders to bring John's head. The guard left, went to the prison, and cut John's head off;