Habakkuk 2:15
“Woe unto him that giveth his neighbour drink, that puttest thy bottle to him, and makest him drunken also, that thou mayest look on their nakedness!”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Woe to the one who plies his neighbor with drink to make him drunk and shamefully expose him.
What Does Habakkuk 2:15 Mean?
The fourth woe condemns the deliberate degradation of others. It denounces the one who makes his neighbor drunk — pressing the bottle on him — in order to humiliate and expose him in his shame. Whether literal or a picture of how Babylon disgraced the nations, the sin is the same: taking pleasure in another's humiliation.
This woe exposes a special kind of cruelty — not merely harming others but degrading them, stripping away dignity for one's own gratification. God takes the dignity of every person seriously, and the shaming of the vulnerable provokes His woe. The verse calls us to the opposite spirit: to cover, protect, and honor our neighbor rather than expose him. Those who delight in another's disgrace will find their own shame turned back upon them, as the next verse declares.