Gluttony
Gluttony in the UPDV is excess at the table — appetite that overruns its measure, that hoards what was given for the day, that grasps at flesh and wine until it shames its bearer or draws down judgment. The same passages that warn against the glutton warn against the drunkard; in the wisdom literature the two run as a paired indictment, and the prophetic and apostolic writings extend the figure into a portrait of a life governed by the belly rather than by Yahweh.
The Wilderness: Manna and Quail
The first scriptural lesson on appetite is the manna. Yahweh gave it morning by morning, "every man according to his eating: and when the sun waxed hot, it melted" (Ex 16:21). Some hoarded it past the appointed limit: "Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses; but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and stank: and Moses was angry with them" (Ex 16:20). On the seventh day, in defiance of the Sabbath restriction, "some of the people went out to gather, and they found none" (Ex 16:27).
In Numbers the lesson sharpens. The mixed multitude "lusted exceedingly," remembering the rich diet of Egypt: "We remember the fish, which we ate in Egypt for nothing; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic" (Nu 11:5). When the quail came they took it without restraint: "And the people rose up all that day, and all the night, and all the next day, and gathered the quails: he who gathered least gathered ten homers: and they spread them all abroad for themselves round about the camp" (Nu 11:32). Yahweh's response was immediate. "While the flesh was yet between their teeth, before it was chewed, the anger of Yahweh was kindled against the people, and Yahweh struck the people with a very great plague" (Nu 11:33). The psalmist recalls the incident as the type-case of testing God by appetite: "And they tried God in their heart by asking food according to their soul" (Ps 78:18).
The Rebellious Son
The Mosaic law fixes glutton-and-drunkard together as a single legal charge against an incorrigible son. "And they will say to the elders of his city, This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard" (De 21:20). The sentence is communal and severe: "And all the men of his city will stone him to death with stones: so you will put away the evil from the midst of you; and all Israel will hear, and fear" (De 21:21).
The Wisdom Warnings
Proverbs treats the glutton as a fool whose appetite has taken the place of his judgment. The most extended passage is the table-with-the-ruler instruction: "When you sit to eat with a ruler, Consider diligently him who is before you; And put a knife to your throat, If you are a man who is given to soul" (Pr 23:1-2). The same chapter pairs the glutton with the drunkard: "Don't be among winebibbers, Among gluttonous eaters of flesh: For the drunkard and the glutton will come to poverty; And drowsiness will clothe [a man] with rags" (Pr 23:20-21).
Other Proverbs make the same point in single strokes. "Have you found honey? Eat so much as is sufficient for you, Or else you will be filled with it, and vomit it" (Pr 25:16). "He whose spirit is without restraint Is [like] a city that is broken down and without walls" (Pr 25:28). "Whoever keeps the law is a wise son; But he who is a shepherd of gluttons shames his father" (Pr 28:7). Among the four things the earth cannot bear is "a fool when he is filled with food" (Pr 30:22), set under the frame "For three things the earth trembles, And for four, [which] it can't bear" (Pr 30:21). And the king is held to a higher table: "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; Nor for princes to desire strong drink" (Pr 31:4).
Ecclesiastes turns the same proverb on the political order: "You are happy, O land, when your king is the son of nobles, and your princes eat in due season, for strength, and not for drunkenness!" (Ec 10:17). And Ecclesiastes describes the unfilled appetite generally: "All the labor of man is for his mouth, and yet the soul is not filled" (Ec 6:7).
Sirach extends the wisdom-table tradition with explicit table-manners. "My son, if you sit at a great man's table, Do not be greedy upon it. Do not say: 'There is plenty here!'" (Sir 31:12). "Do not stretch out your hand at that which he looks at, And do not reach your hand with his into the dish" (Sir 31:15). "Eat like a man what is set before you, And do not eat greedily lest you be despised" (Sir 31:16). "But if you are oppressed with [eating] dainties, Arise and vomit, so will you have ease" (Sir 31:21). The medical observation comes in chapter 37: "For in much eating lurks sickness, And he who consumes too much draws near to loathing" (Sir 37:30); "Through lack of self-control many have perished, But he who controls himself prolongs his life" (Sir 37:31). On luxury and appetite generally, "Do not go after your desires, And refrain yourself from your appetites" (Sir 18:30); "Do not delight yourself in too much luxury, For double is its poverty" (Sir 18:32); "Do not be insatiable in every luxury, And give not yourself wholly to every dainty" (Sir 37:29).
The Prophetic Indictment
The prophets condemn excess as the marker of a people who have forgotten Yahweh. Isaiah twins the slogan of pleasure-seeking with denial of the resurrection: "but saw joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep, eating flesh and drinking wine: let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we will die" (Is 22:13). The drunkards of Ephraim wear their excess like a crown: "Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley of those who are overcome with wine!" (Is 28:1). Late Isaiah quotes the appetite-driven schedule: "Come⁺, [they say], I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow will be as this day, [a day] great beyond measure" (Is 56:12).
Habakkuk catches the same insatiability: "And how much more arrogant is a betrayer, a haughty [able-bodied] man, who does not keep at home; who enlarges his soul as Sheol, and he is as death, and can't be satisfied" (Hab 2:5).
Amos pictures the luxurious feasting of the northern nobles in detail. "Who lie on beds of ivory, and stretch themselves on their couches, and eat the lambs out of the flock, and the calves out of the midst of the stall" (Am 6:4); "who sing idle songs to the sound of the viol; who invent for themselves instruments of music, like David" (Am 6:5); "who drink wine in bowls, and anoint themselves with the chief oils; but they are not grieved for the affliction of Joseph" (Am 6:6). The judgment is captivity: "Therefore they will now go captive with the first that go captive; and the revelry of those who stretched themselves will pass away" (Am 6:7).
Named Instances
Particular gluttons are named. Esau is the archetype: faint from the field, he traded his birthright for a meal. "And Esau said to Jacob, Feed me, I pray you, with that same red [pottage]. For I am faint" (Ge 25:30); the rest of the bargain follows — "And Jacob gave Esau bread and pottage of lentils. And he ate and drank, and rose up, and went his way. So Esau despised his birthright" (Ge 25:34). Hebrews recapitulates him as the warning: "lest [there be] any whore, or profane person, as Esau, who for one meal sold his own birthright" (Heb 12:16); "for you⁺ know that even when he afterward desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected; for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears" (Heb 12:17).
The sons of Eli stand in the priestly office. Their custom was to seize the sacrificial flesh before the fat had been burned to Yahweh: "Yes, before they burned the fat, the priest's attendant came, and said to the man who sacrificed, Give flesh to roast for the priest; for he will not have boiled flesh of you, but raw" (1Sa 2:15); "and if the man said to him, They will surely burn the fat first, and then take as much as your soul desires; then he would say, No, but you will give it to me now: and if not, I will take it by force" (1Sa 2:16). "And the sin of the young men was very great before Yahweh; for they despised the offering of Yahweh" (1Sa 2:17).
Belshazzar's feast is named simply: "Belshazzar the king made a great feast to a thousand of his lords, and drank wine before the thousand" (Da 5:1). Nabal's drunken feasting is recorded for the same reason: "And Abigail came to Nabal; and, look, he held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal's heart was merry inside him, for he was very drunk" (1Sa 25:36). And drunkenness as cover for political assassination appears in the cases of Zimri's master Elah (1Ki 16:9), Ben-hadad in his pavilions (1Ki 20:16), and Uriah at David's table (2Sa 11:13). Daniel and his companions stand on the other side of this register: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself" (Da 1:8).
The Rich Fool and the Unfaithful Slave
In Luke's gospel the eat-drink-be-merry slogan returns as the inner speech of the rich fool: "And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have much goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry" (Lu 12:19). The divine reply is immediate: "But God said to him, You foolish one, this [is] the night they demand back your soul from you; and the things which you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Lu 12:20). The same idiom returns in the parable of the unfaithful slave: "But if that slave will say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; and will begin to beat the male slaves and the female slaves, and to eat and drink, and to be drunk" (Lu 12:45); "the lord of that slave will come in a day when he does not expect, and in an hour when he does not know, and will cut him apart, and appoint his portion with the unfaithful" (Lu 12:46).
The Olivet warning generalizes: "But take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your⁺ hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day come upon you⁺ suddenly as a snare" (Lu 21:34). The thorny soil of the parable matches: "And that which fell among the thorns, these are those who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of [this] life, and bring no fruit to perfection" (Lu 8:14). And the prodigal son lives the figure out narratively: "And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country; and there he wasted his substance with riotous living" (Lu 15:13). Lazarus' rich man is the picture of luxurious living: "Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, faring sumptuously every day" (Lu 16:19).
The Belly as God
The strongest apostolic phrase comes in Philippians: "whose end is perdition, whose god is the belly, and [whose] glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Php 3:19). Paul's ironic citation of the Isaianic slogan turns on the same axis: "If after the manner of men I fought with beasts at Ephesus, what does it profit me? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die" (1Co 15:32). The Corinthian common meal had become a scene of disorder: "for in your⁺ eating each takes before [another] his own supper; and one is hungry, and another is drunk" (1Co 11:21).
Paul's lists of fleshly works number drunkenness and reveling among them. "Let us walk becomingly, as in the day; not in reveling and drunkenness, not in promiscuity and sexual depravity, not in strife and jealousy" (Ro 13:13). "Envyings, drunkenness, revelings, and things similar to these; of which I forewarn you⁺, even as I did forewarn you⁺, that those who participate in such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Ga 5:21). "Nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, will inherit the kingdom of God" (1Co 6:10). "And don't be drunk with wine, in which is riot, but be filled with the Spirit" (Ep 5:18). Peter writes the same way of the Gentile past: "For the time past may suffice to have worked the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in sexual depravity, erotic desires, winebibbings, revelings, carousings, and horrible idolatries" (1Pe 4:3); and 2 Peter accuses the false teachers as "[men] that count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions while they feast with you⁺" (2Pe 2:13). Jude is more concrete still, picturing the gluttonous infiltrators of the love-feasts: "These [men] are the ones who are hidden rocks in your⁺ love-feasts when they feast with you⁺ without fear, shepherding themselves" (Jude 1:12). James indicts the rich landowners in the same idiom: "You⁺ have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your⁺ pleasure; you⁺ have nourished your⁺ hearts in a day of slaughter" (Jas 5:5).
Self-Control and Restraint
Against the glutton stands self-control. "And every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things" (1Co 9:25); "but I buffet my body, and bring it into slavery" (1Co 9:27). The Spirit's fruit includes "meekness, self-control; against such there is no law" (Ga 5:23), and Peter's chain of virtues passes through it: "in [your⁺] knowledge self-control; and in [your⁺] self-control patience" (2Pe 1:6). The proverbs anchor the same posture: "He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; And he who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city" (Pr 16:32). Paul's freedom-in-Christ qualification stands beside it: "All things are lawful for me; but not all things are expedient. All things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the power of any" (1Co 6:12). Sirach makes the connection between wine and restraint explicit: "Moreover, when at wine, exercise restraint, For wine has destroyed many" (Sir 31:25); and notes the medical and moral payoff of restraint, "There is healthy sleep for moderate eating; He rises in the morning and his soul is with him" (Sir 31:20).