They do not drink wine with a song; strong drink is bitter to those who drink it, establishing that the basic practices of sustenance and celebration are corrupted by judgment, that food and drink lose their capacity to nourish and gladden. The bitterness of strong drink suggests that judgment poisons even the sources of comfort and relief. The absence of song with wine represents a fundamental separation of eating and celebration from the culture and meaning that had surrounded them. This verse suggests that judgment affects not merely material survival but the quality and meaning of that survival, that one can be alive yet bereft of the conditions that make life worth living.

COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

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