# The Testaments of the Twelve Patriarchs, chapter 51: Judah 16

Source: https://enocharchive.com/books/the-testaments-of-the-twelve-patriarchs/51 (Enoch Archive, public-domain translation).

**51:1** Observe therefore, my children, moderation in wine; for there are in it four evil spirits—of (1) lust, of (2) wrath, of (3) riot, of (4) filthy lucre.

**51:2** If ye drink wine in gladness, with shamefacedness, with the fear of God, ye shall live.

**51:3** For if ye drink not with shamefacedness, and the fear of God departeth from you, then cometh drunkenness, and shamelessness stealeth in.

**51:4** But even if ye drink not at all, take heed lest ye sin in words of outrage, and fighting, and slander, and transgression of the commandments of God; so shall ye perish before your time.

**51:5** Moreover, wine revealeth the mysteries of God and men to aliens, even as I also revealed the commandments of God and the mysteries of Jacob my father to the Canaanitish Bathshua, to whom God forbade to declare them.

**51:6** And wine also is a cause of war and confusion.

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