Hebrew word · H5435

סֹ֫בֶא

save'ekh

liquor

Intoxicating drink: wine or a strong alcoholic drink. Possibly also the drinking party itself. The related verb sava' means to drink heavily, guzzle, carouse.

Appears 3 times in 3 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

drink, liquor, wine

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Hosea 4:18

Range of meaning

Intoxicating drink: wine or a strong alcoholic drink. Possibly also the drinking party itself. The related verb sava' means to drink heavily, guzzle, carouse.

Against the English

BSB 'liquor', KJV/WEB/YLT 'drink'. 'Liquor' suggests distilled spirits, which did not exist then. The drink was wine or beer.

Used elsewhere in the period

Isa 1:22 ('your sove mixed with water'); Nah 1:10 ('drunk as with their sove'); the verb in Deut 21:20 and Prov 23:20–21 ('do not be among winebibbers'). Drinking feasts linked to cult and the upper class are condemned in Amos 6:4–7, where they are connected to the marzeaḥ, a banqueting association also known from Ugaritic and later texts.

From the study of Nahum 1:10

Range of meaning

The noun סֹבֶא means liquor, wine or beer, often with a sense of heavy drinking (Isaiah 1:22; Hosea 4:18). The verb סָבָא means to drink heavily, guzzle, be a drunkard (Deuteronomy 21:20 'a glutton and a drunkard'; Proverbs 23:20–21; Isaiah 56:12).

Against the English

KJV/ESV 'drunkards' and NLT's 'staggering like drunks' keep the picture of a people in a stupor. BSB ('consumed like the drink of a drunkard') reads the clause differently: they will be gulped down the way a drunkard gulps his drink. The Hebrew can be read either way.

Used elsewhere in the period

Both words come from the same root here, a sound-play (the drink of the drunk). In Nahum 3:11 Nineveh is told 'you too will become drunk', which uses the prophets' 'cup of wrath' image (Jeremiah 25:15–29; Obadiah 16; Habakkuk 2:16), where drunkenness stands for a stupor sent by God before collapse.

Where it appears

Isaiah · 1

  1. Isaiah 1:22 סָבְאֵ֖ךְ drink your

    Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.

Hosea · 1

  1. Hosea 4:18 סָבְאָ֑ם drink their

    When their liquor is gone, they turn to prostitution; their rulers dearly love disgrace.

    Here: 'Their drink': strong wine, or the drinking bout itself. The related verb means to drink heavily or carouse (Deut 21:20, 'a glutton and a drunkard'). The word recalls 4:11: 'whoredom, wine and new wine take away the understanding.' It also sounds close to 'sar', which makes a short, sharp two-word opening.

Nahum · 1

  1. Nahum 1:10 וּכְסָבְאָ֖ם and like drink their

    For they will be entangled as with thorns and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—like stubble that is fully dry.

    Here: 'And as with their liquor', literally 'like their drink'. The word סֹבֶא means strong drink, wine or beer, and usually implies heavy drinking.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.