1 Esdras 3:17-19

Revised Standard Version

¹⁷ And they said to them, “Explain to us what you have written.”

The Speech about Wine

Then the first, who had spoken of the strength of wine, began and said: ¹⁸ “Gentlemen, how is wine the strongest? It leads astray the minds of all who drink it. ¹⁹ It makes equal the mind of the king and the orphan, of the slave and the free, of the poor and the rich.