Drink-Offering
Easton's Bible Dictionary [1]
Numbers 15:5 Hosea 9:4 Exodus 30:9 Numbers 6:15,17 2 Kings 16:13 Joel 1:9,13 2:14 Exodus 29:40 Numbers 28:9 Numbers 15:5 28:7,14 Psalm 16:4
American Tract Society Bible Dictionary [2]
A small quantity of wine, part of which was to be poured on the sacrifice or meat offering, and the residue given to the priests, Exodus 29:40; Leviticus 23:18; Numbers 15:5,7 . It may have been appointed as an acknowledgment that all the blessings of the earth are from God, Genesis 35:14 .
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible [3]
Drink-Offering . See Sacrifice and Offering.
Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological and Ecclesiastical Literature [4]
( נֶסֶךְ , Ne'Sek , or נָסַיךְ , Nasik' ; Σπονδή , compare Σπένδεσθαι , Philippians 2:17). One form of this consisted, according to the ritual law, of wine ( Numbers 15:5; Hosea 9:4; Sirach 1:15 [17]; compare Curt. 7:8, 18; Pliny, 14:14; Iliad , 1:463; 10:579; Odys. 12:362; on the best sorts of wine for this purpose, see the Mishna, Menach. 8:6 sq.), which, according to Josephus (Ant. 3:9, 4), was poured around the altar (rept ( Περὶ Τὸν Βωμόν ; i.e., the burnt altar, Exodus 30:9), and not, as the Jews understand it (Mishna, Succah , 4:9), in a channel or tube of it. Drink- offerings were commonly joined with meatofferings ( Numbers 6:15; Numbers 6:17; 2 Kings 16:13; Joel 1:9; Joel 1:13; Joel 2:14), an addition to the burnt and thank offerings (not the sin and trespass offering), which consisted of quadrupeds ( Numbers 6:17; Numbers 15:5; Numbers 15:10; 1 Chronicles 29:21; 2 Chronicles 29:35), and were, like these, presented, sometimes by private persons and sometimes in the name of the people, daily ( Exodus 29:40; Numbers 28:7), on the Sabbath ( Numbers 28:9), and on feast-days ( Numbers 28:14; Numbers 29:6; Numbers 29:16; Numbers 29:24), in such proportion that one lamb was reckoned to require one fourth of a bin of wine, one ram a third of a hin, and one bullock a half hin ( Numbers 15:5 sq.; Numbers 28:7; Numbers 28:14). In the (second) Temple liquors were kept ready for drink-offerings (Joseph; War , 10:13, 6), and were dispensed (Mishna, Shekal. 5:1, 3 and 4) by the praefect of libations ( עִל הִנְּסָכַים ). The Israelites frequently devoted drink-offerings also to foreign deities ( Isaiah 57:6; Isaiah 65:11; Jeremiah 7:18; Jeremiah 19:13; Jeremiah 44:17; Ezekiel 20:28), as throughout antiquity libations of wine were made to heathen gods (see Smith's Dict. Of Class. Antiq. s.v. Sacrificium, page 846). On the water-libation at the festival of booths, see Tabernacles, Feast Of Libations of water occur in individual cases even prior to the exile ( 2 Samuel 23:16; 1 Samuel 7:6). On the other hand, Elijah poured water on the altar ( 1 Kings 18:34 sq.) merely to heighten the effect of his miracle in contrast with his idolatrous competitors (Josephus, Ant. 8:13, 5). On the oillibation of Genesis 35:14, (See Stone). Psalms 16:6 (but probably not Zechariah 9:7) appears to contain an allusion to heathenish drink-offerings consisting of wine mingled with blood (vinum assiratum), which, especially when persons bound themselves to a fearful undertaking, it was customary to drink (Sallust, Catil. 22:1; Sil. Ital. 2:426 sq.). (See Offering).
