Stop, and wonder; cry you out, and cry: they are drunken, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink.
All Commentaries on Isaiah 29:9 Go To Isaiah 29
John Chrysostom
AD 407
Since you are reasonable, I know that after my exhortation you will not permit yourselves to go beyond the bounds of what you need. But now it is appropriate for me to urge you not only to turn aside from drinking to excess but also to avoid the drunkenness that comes without drinking wine. For this kind is more dangerous. Don’t be astonished at what I say, for it is possible to be drunk without wine. That you may know that this is possible, listen to the prophet, who said, “Woe to those who are drunk not from wine.” But what is this drunkenness that does not come from wine? It takes many and varied forms. For anger makes us drunk; so too, vainglory, haughty madness, and all the deadly passions that spring up in us produce a kind of drunkenness and satiety that darkens our reason. For drunkenness is nothing more than the distraction of our minds from their natural ways, the straying of reason and the loss of our understanding.
