29 Wine drunk to excess leads to bitterness of spirit, to quarrels and stumbling. 30 Drunkenness increases the anger of a fool to his own hurt, reducing his strength and adding wounds. 31 Do not reprove your neighbor at a banquet of wine, and do not despise him in his merrymaking; speak no word of reproach to him, and do not distress him by making demands of him.

Let us keep away from us jibing, the originator of insult, from which strifes and contentions and enmities burst forth. Insult, we have said, is the servant of drunkenness. A man is judged, not from his deeds alone, but from his words. In a banquet, it is said, reprove not your neighbour, nor say to him a word of reproach. For if we are enjoined especially to associate with saints, it is a sin to jibe at a saint: For from the mouth of the foolish, says the Scripture, is a staff of insult, — meaning by staff the prop of insult, on which insult leans and rests. Whence I admire the apostle, who, in reference to this, exhorts us not to utter scurrilous nor unsuitable words.