Drink Offering

The drink offering is an offering in which a beverage such as wine is poured out to God. In Hebrew it is called nesek, a noun derived from the verb nasak, "to pour." (The Korean term for it, jeonje [奠祭], is a homonym of the logical term jeonje [前提], "premise," but the two words are unrelated.)

Occurrences in Scripture

• The first occurrence is Genesis 35:14, where Jacob set up a pillar of stone at Bethel and poured a drink offering and oil on it.
• Exodus 29:40-41 directs that a fourth part of a hin of wine be offered as a drink offering with the morning and evening burnt offerings.
• Numbers 15:1-10 sets the quantities according to the size of the sacrifice: a fourth part of a hin of wine for a lamb, a third part of a hin for a ram, and half a hin for a bullock. Numbers 28-29 and Leviticus 23 also require drink offerings with the sacrifices of the Sabbath and of each feast.
• Joel 1:9, 13 laments that, because of calamity, the meat offering and the drink offering have been cut off from the temple.
• Jeremiah 7:18 and 44:17-19 rebuke the people of Judah for pouring out drink offerings to the "queen of heaven" and to other gods. Psalm 16:4 contains the confession, "their drink offerings of blood will I not offer."

Background

The drink offering was usually not presented by itself. It was offered together with the meat offering (grain offering) as an accompaniment to the burnt offering or the peace offering (Numbers 15:3-5). The hin was a unit of liquid measure, and scholars differ in their estimates of its exact volume. Numbers 28:7 commands that the drink offering of strong wine be poured "in the holy place," but it does not specify exactly where or how it was poured. Exodus 30:9 forbids pouring a drink offering on the altar of incense. Later Jewish literature reportedly records that the drink offering was poured out at the base of the altar of burnt offering.

The custom of pouring out wine as an offering to a deity was widespread in the ancient Near East and the Greek world. The prophets' rebuke of drink offerings presented to other gods is connected with idolatry.

Significance in the New Testament

Paul compared his own life to a drink offering. In Philippians 2:17 he wrote, "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all," and in 2 Timothy 4:6, "For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand." The Greek verb used in these passages, spendō, is the word the Septuagint uses for the act of pouring out a drink offering.

As Hebrews teaches, after Christ's once-for-all sacrifice, animal sacrifices ceased to be offered. Accordingly, Protestant churches do not practice the drink offering as a rite.

Interpretation and Points of Discussion

• Paul's language: 2 Timothy 4:6 is widely read as anticipating Paul's approaching martyrdom. Because Philippians 2:17 is a conditional statement ("if I be offered"), some interpreters take it as referring to the possibility of death, while others take it as referring to the whole of Paul's imprisonment and labors at that time.
• Type of Christ: Some interpreters read the drink offering as a type (a shadow that foreshadows what is to come), connecting it with the blood of Jesus shed on the cross or with the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. However, since no passage of Scripture directly connects the drink offering with Christ, this remains a matter of interpretation.
• Strong wine: Interpreters differ on whether the "strong wine" (shekar) of Numbers 28:7 refers to wine or to some other fermented drink.
• David's water: The episode in which David refused to drink the water from the well of Bethlehem and instead poured it out to the LORD (2 Samuel 23:16) is often explained in connection with the drink offering. The text, however, does not use the term "drink offering."

In the Korean Church

Philippians 2:17 and 2 Timothy 4:6 are frequently cited in services commissioning missionaries, in ordination services, and in sermons honoring martyrs, as texts that speak of devoting oneself wholly to God. The New Korean Revised Version renders the term as jeonje (drink offering), while some plain-language translations paraphrase it as "an offering poured out."