And shall begin to smite his fellowservants, and to eat and drink with the drunken;

and shall begin to beat his fellow-servants, and shall eat and drink with the drunken;

And shall begin to strike his fellow servants, and shall eat and drink with drunkards:

and begin to beat his fellow-bondmen, and eat and drink with the drunken;

and should begin to beat his fellow servants, while he eats and drinks with drunkards;

And is cruel to the other servants, taking his pleasure with those who are overcome with wine;

and so, he begins to strike his fellow servants, and he eats and drinks with the inebriated:

and begin to beat their fellow servants, and eat and drink with drunkards,

Smite his fellow-servants - This is the conduct of a wicked servant, who, supposing he would not be called to account, and abusing his authority, gave himself up to oppression, carousing, and debauchery.
It is designed to represent the conduct of ministers who are unfaithful and overbearing, and who abuse their trust in the church.

And shall begin to smite his fellow servants,.... By abusing the power lodged in him, usurping a dominion over their faith, and imposing on their consciences things which Christ has never commanded; vexing and burdening them with trifling rites and ceremonies, and other unnecessary things; wounding, grieving, offending weak minds by his conduct and example; or persecuting the saints, such of them as cannot come into everything in his way of believing and practising:
and to eat and drink with the drunken; giving himself up to luxury and intemperance; feeding himself instead of the family; serving his own belly, and not his Lord and Master Christ; living an ungodly and licentious life, altogether unbecoming the Gospel of Christ: such servants and stewards have been, and are in the church of God; but sad will be their case, when their Lord comes, as follows. Respect seems to be had either to the ecclesiastical rulers among the Jews, who went under the name of the servants of the Lord, but persecuted the apostles, and those that believed in Christ; or the "Judaizing" Christians, and false teachers, that were for imposing the ceremonies of the law upon believers; or Simon Magus, and his followers, a set of licentious, men; or all of them; who lived in this period of time, between the death of Christ, and the destruction of the temple.

And shall begin to smite his fellow-servants. There is no sin more common among those who are clothed with authority than oppression. There have been no worse oppressors than priests.
And to eat and drink with the drunken. What first disgusted Luther with the faith in which he had been reared was the profligacy of the priests and monks. It has often been the case that the Vatican was the very hot-bed of scandal.