The drink offering was a form of libation

Libation

A libation is a ritual pouring of a liquid as an offering to a god or spirit or in memory of those who have died. It was common in many religions of antiquity and continues to be offered in various cultures today....

 forming one of the sacrifices and offerings of the Law of Moses.

Etymology

The Hebrew noun

Noun

In linguistics, a noun is a member of a large, open lexical category whose members can occur as the main word in the subject of a clause, the object of a verb, or the object of a preposition .Lexical categories are defined in terms of how their members combine with other kinds of...

 nesek is formed from the Qal

Qal

Qal can refer to:* Gal, Azerbaijan* Qal , simple form of a Hebrew verb...

 form of the verb

Verb

A verb, from the Latin verbum meaning word, is a word that in syntax conveys an action , or a state of being . In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive...

 nasak, "to pour," hence "thing poured." The verb and the noun frequently come together, such as nasak et-nesek, literally "pour the thing poured" as in the only pre-Exodus use, that of Jacob's libation at a pillar in Genesis 35:14. The etymology "thing poured" explains the existence of the rarer secondary use of the verb nasak for "cast" (an idol), and the noun nesek for a "thing poured" (also an idol).

Hebrew Bible

The drink offering accompanied various sacrifices and offerings on various feast days. Usually the offering was of wine, but in one instance also of "strong drink" (Numbers 28:7). This "strong drink" (Hebrew sheker שֵׁכָר, Septuagint sikera σίκερα as Luke 1:15, but also methusma in Judges 13:4 and Micah 2:11) is not identified.

Ancient Near East parallels

In Akkadian texts, and Ugaritic epics there are references to libations, and sometimes the same verb stem N-S-K "to pour" is used. Psalm 16:4 gives reference to a "drink offering" of blood among pagans, but generally in ANE religions libations were also of wine.

Rabbinical interpretation

In the Talmud the view of Rabbi Meir was that the blood of the sacrifices permits the drink offering to the altar (B. Zeb. 44a).