English Standard Version
1 Thessalonians 5:7
7For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night.
1 Thessalonians 5:7 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night.
- New International Version (NIV)For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night.
- New King James Version (NKJV)For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Night is the time when people sleep and drinkers get drunk.
Context of 1 Thessalonians 5:7
5For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. 6So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, are drunk at night. 8But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. 9For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,
Read all of 1 Thessalonians 51 Thessalonians 5:7 word by word
οἱ γὰρ καθεύδοντες νυκτὸς καθεύδουσιν καὶ οἱ μεθυσκόμενοι νυκτὸς μεθύουσιν·Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for 1 Thessalonians 5:7
- Job 4:13Amid thoughts from visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men,
- Job 33:15In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,
- Luke 21:34"But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap.
- Romans 13:13Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.
- 1 Corinthians 15:34Wake up from your drunken stupor, as is right, and do not go on sinning. For some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.
- Ephesians 5:14for anything that becomes visible is light. Therefore it says, "Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you."
- 1 Samuel 25:36And Abigail came to Nabal, and behold, he was holding a feast in his house, like the feast of a king. And Nabal's heart was merry within him, for he was very drunk. So she told him nothing at all until the morning light.
- Proverbs 23:29Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
- Isaiah 21:4My heart staggers; horror has appalled me; the twilight I longed for has been turned for me into trembling.
- Daniel 5:4They drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.
- Acts 2:15For these people are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day.
- 2 Peter 2:13suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you.
Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 5:7
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 7For they that sleep - Sleepers and drunkards seek the night season; so the careless and the profligate persons indulge their evil propensities, and avoid all means of instruction; they prefer their ignorance to the word of God's grace, and to the light of life. There seems to be here an allusion to the opinion mentioned under 1 Thessalonians 5:4; (note), to which the reader is requested to refer. It may be remarked, also, that it was accounted doubly…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 7For they that sleep, sleep in the night - Night is the time for sleep. The day is the time for action, and in the light of day people should be employed. Night and sleep are made for each other, and so are the day and active employment. The meaning here is, that it is in accordance with the character of those who are of the night, that is, sinners, to be sunk in stupidity and carnal security, as if they were asleep; but for the children of the day, that…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 6-11Verses 6-11 Most of mankind do not consider the things of another world at all, because they are asleep; or they do not consider them aright, because they sleep and dream. Our moderation as to all earthly things should be known to all men. Shall Christians, who have the light of the blessed gospel shining in their faces, be careless about their souls, and unmindful of another world? We need the spiritual armour, or the three Christian graces, faith, love…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 7Sleep means being lazy in morals (5:6). Being drunk is a metaphor for lacking self-control. The day of the Lord will surprise these people (5:4; Matthew 24:48–51).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 77. This verse is to be taken in the literal sense. Night is the time when sleepers sleep, and drinking men are drunk. To sleep by day would imply great indolence; to be drunken by day, great shamelessness. Now, in a spiritual sense, "we Christians profess to be day people, not night people; therefore our work ought to be day work, not night work; our conduct such as will bear the eye of day, and such has no need of the veil of night" [Edmunds], (1Th 5:8).Read the comment
Topics related to 1 Thessalonians 5:7
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on 1 Thessalonians 5
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Illustrated New Testament
- Burkitt’s Expository Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Family Bible Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Luther’s Commentary on Selected Bible Passages
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- The People’s New Testament
- Robertson’s Word Pictures
- Scofield Reference Notes, 1917 Edition
- Original Douay–Rheims Annotations
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
English Standard Version — © 2001 Crossway Bibles
Commentaries