Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 25:15
For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
15 29. The wine-cup of the Lord’s fury to be drunk by all the nations.
For confusion and dismay, expressed under the figure of intoxication, see below. Overthrow at the hands of the Chaldaeans is to be the fate of the nations.
The genuineness of the passage as a whole has been challenged by Schwally and Du., but on insufficient grounds, although it has probably received a certain editorial expansion. Co. considers the whole ch. to have a genuine Jeremianic basis, and Gi. agrees as to Jer 25:15-19, but brackets Jer 25:20-31 as later insertions, adducing among other reasons the placing of Judah and her neighbours on a level of comparison, contrary to the spirit of the genuine portions of Jeremiah, and the vagueness of the expressions, “ all the kings of Tyre,” “of Zidon,” etc. ( Jer 25:22).
the cup of the wine of this fury ] The likening of disaster to a bitter and intoxicating draught is frequent in the Bible. See chs. Jer 13:12 f., Jer 49:12, Jer 51:7; Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Isa 51:22; Eze 23:31; Hab 2:15; Rev 14:8; Rev 17:4; Rev 18:3.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Saith – Or, hath said. This prophecy – placed by the Septuagint after those against the nations – forms an impressive statement of the manner in which the new kingdom of Babylon was to execute Yahwehs wrath upon the nations far and near.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 15. Take the wine cup of this fury] For an ample illustration of this passage and simile, See Clarke on Isa 51:21.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Gods judgments are often in Scripture expressed under the notion of a cup of hot and intoxicating drink, and their suffering is set out under the notion of drinking such a cup, as Psa 75:8; Job 21:20; Isa 51:17; Psa 11:6; 60:3; Lam 4:21; Eze 23:32,34. God made Jeremiah to see the appearance of such a cup in a vision, and bade him to carry it to the nations to whom he sent him, to signify to them that his wrath should be poured out on them, and they should drink of it.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
15. wine cupCompare Jer 13:12;Jer 13:13, as to this image, toexpress stupefying judgments; also Jer 49:12;Jer 51:7. Jeremiah often embodiesthe imagery of Isaiah in his prophecies (Lam 4:21;Isa 51:17-22; Rev 16:19;Rev 18:6). The wine cup was notliterally given by Jeremiah to the representatives of the differentnations; but only in symbolical vision.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
For thus saith the Lord God of Israel unto me,…. The prophet:
take the wine cup of this fury at my hand; in a vision the Lord appeared to Jeremiah with a cup of wine in his hand, which he bid him take of him. It is usual in Scripture for the judgments of God on men to be signified by a cup of hot and intoxicating liquor, Isa 51:17; particularly in Ps 75:8; to which reference may be had; as John seems to refer to the passage here in Re 14:10; called a cup, because they are in measure, and but small in comparison of what will be inflicted in the world to come; and a cup of “fury”, because they proceed from the wrath of God, stirred up by the sins of men. Jarchi interprets this cup of the prophecy of vengeance, which the Lord delivered to Jeremiah; and not amiss:
and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it; prophesy unto them what wrath and ruin shall come upon them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
The cup of God’s fury. – Jer 25:15. “For thus hath Jahveh, the God of Israel, said to me: Take this cup of the wine of fury at my hand, and give it to drink to all the peoples to whom I send thee, Jer 25:16. That they may drink, and reel, and be mad, because of the sword that I send amongst them. Jer 25:17. And I took the cup at the hand of Jahveh, and made all the peoples drink it to whom Jahveh had sent me: Jer 25:18. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and her kings, her princes, to make them a desolation and an astonishment, an hissing and a curse, as it is this day; Jer 25:19. Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; Jer 25:20. And all the mixed races and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Jer 25:21. Edom, and Moab, and the sons of Ammon; Jer 25:22. All the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands beyond the sea; Jer 25:23. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all with the corners of their hair polled; Jer 25:24. And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed races that dwell in the wilderness; Jer 25:25. All the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; Jer 25:26. And all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. Jer 25:27. And say to them: Thus hath Jahveh, the God of Israel, said: Drink and be drunken, and spue, and fall and rise not up again, because of the sword which I send among you. Jer 25:28. And if it be that they refuse to take the cup out of thine hand to drink, then say to them: Thus hath Jahveh of hosts said: Drink ye shall. Jer 25:29. For, behold, on the city upon which my name is named I begin to bring evil, and ye think to go unpunished? Ye shall not go unpunished; for I call the sword against all inhabitants of the earth, saith Jahveh of hosts.”
To illustrate more fully the threatening against Judah and all peoples, Jer 25:9., the judgment the Lord is about to execute on all the world is set forth under the similitude of a flagon filled with wrath, which the prophet is to hand to all the kings and peoples, one after another, and which he does give them to drink. The symbolical action imposed upon the prophet and, acc. to Jer 25:17, performed by him, serves to give emphasis to the threatening, and is therefore introduced by ; of which Graf erroneously affirms that it conveys a meaning only when Jer 25:11-14 are omitted. Giving the peoples to drink of the cup of wrath is a figure not uncommon with the prophets for divine chastisements to be inflicted; cf. Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Isa 51:17, Isa 51:22; Eze 23:31., Hab 2:15; Psa 60:5; Psa 75:9, etc. The cup of wine which is wrath (fury). is an explanatory apposition to “wine.” The wine with which the cup is filled is the wrath of God. belongs to , which is fem., cf. Eze 23:32, Eze 23:34; Lam 4:21, whereas belongs to the wine which is wrath. In Jer 25:16, where the purpose with which the cup of wrath is to be presented is given, figure is exchanged for fact: they shall reel and become mad because of the sword which the Lord sends amidst them. To reel, sway to and fro, like drunken men. , demean oneself insanely, be mad. The sword as a weapon of war stands often for war, and the thought is: war with its horrors will stupefy the peoples, so that they perish helpless and powerless.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
| The Cup of Wrath; General Desolation. | B. C. 607. |
15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. 16 And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them. 17 Then took I the cup at the LORD‘s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me: 18 To wit, Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse; as it is this day; 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; 20 And all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Azzah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, 21 Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon, 22 And all the kings of Tyrus, and all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea, 23 Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all that are in the utmost corners, 24 And all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people that dwell in the desert, 25 And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes, 26 And all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another, and all the kingdoms of the world, which are upon the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. 27 Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you. 28 And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink. 29 For, lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished: for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the LORD of hosts.
Under the similitude of a cup going round, which all the company must drink of, is here represented the universal desolation that was now coming upon that part of the world which Nebuchadrezzar, who just now began to reign and act, was to be the instrument of, and which should at length recoil upon his own country. The cup in the vision is to be a sword in the accomplishment of it: so it is explained, v. 16. It is the sword that I will send among them, the sword of war, that should be irresistibly strong and implacably cruel.
I. As to the circumstances of this judgment, observe,
1. Whence this destroying sword should come–from the hand of God. It is the sword of the Lord (ch. xlvii. 6), bathed in heaven, Isa. xxxiv. 5. Wicked men are made use of as his sword, Ps. xvii. 13. It is the wine-cup of his fury. It is the just anger of God that sends this judgment. The nations have provoked him by their sins, and they must fall under the tokens of his wrath. These are compared to some intoxicating liquor, which they shall be forced to drink of, as, formerly, condemned malefactors were sometimes executed by being compelled to drink poison. The wicked are said to drink the wrath of the Almighty,Job 21:20; Rev 14:10. Their share of troubles in his world is represented by the dregs of a cup of red wine full of mixture, Ps. lxxv. 8. See Ps. xi. 6. The wrath of God in this world is but as a cup, in comparison of the full streams of it in the other world.
2. By whose hand it should be sent to them–by the hand of Jeremiah as the judge set over the nations (ch. i. 10), to pass his sentence upon them, and by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar as the executioner. What a much greater figure then does the poor prophet make than what the potent prince makes, if we look upon their relation to God, though in the eye of the world it was the reverse of it! Jeremiah must take the cup at God’s hand, and compel the nations to drink it. He foretels no hurt to them but what God appoints him to foretel; and what is foretold by a divine authority will certainly be fulfilled by a divine power.
3. On whom it should be sent–on all the nations within the verge of Israel’s acquaintance and the lines of their communication. Jeremiah took the cup, and made all the nations to drink of it, that is, he prophesied concerning each of the nations here mentioned that they should share in this great desolation that was coming. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah are put first (v. 18); for judgment begins at the house of God (1 Pet. iv. 17), at the sanctuary, Ezek. ix. 6. Whether Nebuchadrezzar had his eye principally upon Jerusalem and Judah in this expedition or no does not appear; probably he had; for it was as considerable as any of the nations here mentioned. However God had his eye principally to them. And this part of the prophecy was already begun to be accomplished; this is denoted by that melancholy parenthesis (as it is this day), for in the fourth year of Jehoiakim things had come into a very bad posture, and all the foundations were out of course. Pharaoh king of Egypt comes next, because the Jews trusted to that broken reed (v. 19); the remains of them fled to Egypt, and there Jeremiah particularly foretold the destruction of that country, Jer 43:10; Jer 43:11. All the other nations that bordered upon Canaan must pledge Jerusalem in this bitter cup, this cup of trembling. The mingled people, the Arabians (so some), some rovers of divers nations that lived by rapine (so others); the kings of the land of Uz, joined to the country of the Edomites. The Philistines had been vexatious to Israel, but now their cities and their lords become a prey to this mighty conqueror. Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Zidon, are places well known to border upon Israel; the Isles beyond, or beside, the sea, are supposed to be those parts of Phnicia and Syria that lay upon the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Dedan and the other countries mentioned (Jer 25:23; Jer 25:24) seem to have lain upon the confines of Idumea and Arabia the desert. Those of Elam are the Persians, with whom the Medes are joined, now looked upon as inconsiderable and yet afterwards able to make reprisals upon Babylon for themselves and all their neighbours. The kings of the north, that lay nearer to Babylon, and others that lay at some distance, will be sure to be seized on and made a prey of by the victorious sword of Nebuchadrezzar. Nay, he shall push on his victories with such incredible fury and success that all the kingdoms of the world that were then and there known should become sacrifices to his ambition. Thus Alexander is said to have conquered the world, and the Roman empire is called the world, Luke ii. 1. Or it may be taken as reading the doom of all the kingdoms of the earth; one time or other, they shall feel the dreadful effects of war. The world has been, and will be, a great cockpit, while men’s lusts war as they do in their members, Jam. iv. 1. But, that the conquerors may see their fate with the conquered, it concludes, The king of Sheshach shall drink after them, that is, the king of Babylon himself, who has given his neighbours all this trouble and vexation, shall at length have it return upon his own head. That by Sheshach is meant Babylon is plain from ch. li. 41; but whether it was another name of the same city or the name of another city of the same kingdom is uncertain. Babylon’s ruin was foretold, Jer 25:12; Jer 25:13. Upon this prophecy of its being the author of the ruin of so many nations it is very fitly repeated here again.
4. What should be the effect of it. The desolations which the sword should make in all these kingdoms are represented by the consequences of excessive drinking (v. 16): They shall drink, and be moved, and be mad. They shall be drunken, and spue, and fall and rise no more, v. 27. Now this may serve, (1.) To make us loathe the sin of drunkenness, that the consequences of it are made use of to set forth a most woeful and miserable condition. Drunkenness deprives men, for the present, of the use of their reason, makes them mad. It takes from them likewise that which, next to reason, is the most valuable blessing, and that is health; it makes them sick, and endangers the bones and the life. Men in drink often fall and rise no more; it is a sin that is its own punishment. How wretchedly are those intoxicated and besotted that suffer themselves at any time to be intoxicated, especially to be by the frequent commission of the sin besotted with wine or strong drink! (2.) To make us dread the judgments of war. When God sends the sword upon a nation, with warrant to make it desolate, it soon becomes like a drunken man, filled with confusion at the alarms of war, put into a hurry; its counsellors mad, and at their wits’ end, staggering in all the measures they take, all the motions they make, sick at heart with continual vexation, vomiting up the riches they have greedily swallowed down (Job xx. 15), falling down before the enemy, and as unable to get up again, or do any thing to help themselves, as a man dead drunk is, Hab. ii. 16.
5. The undoubted certainty of it, with the reason given for it, Jer 25:28; Jer 25:29. They will refuse to take the cup at thy hand; not only they will be loth that the judgment should come, but they will be loth to believe that ever it will come; they will not give credit to the prediction of so despicable a man as Jeremiah. But he must tell them that it is the word of the Lord of hosts, he hath said it; and it is in vain for them to struggle with Omnipotence: You shall certainly drink. And he must give them this reason, It is a time of visitation, it is a reckoning day, and Jerusalem has been called to an account already: I begin to bring evil on the city that is called by my name; its relation to me will not exempt it from punishment, and should you be utterly unpunished? No; If this be done in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry? If those who have some good in them smart so severely for the evil that is found in them, can those expect to escape who have worse evils, and no good, found among them? If Jerusalem be punished for learning idolatry of the nations, shall not the nations be punished, of whom they learned it? No doubt they shall: I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, for they have helped to debauch the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
II. Upon this whole matter we may observe, 1. That there is a God that judges in the earth, to whom all the nations of the earth are accountable, and by whose judgment they must abide. 2. That God can easily bring to ruin the greatest nations, the most numerous and powerful, and such as have been most secure. 3. That those who have been vexatious and mischievous to the people of God will be reckoned with for it at last. Many of these nations had in their turns given disturbance to Israel, but now comes destruction on them. The year of the redeemer will come, even the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. 4. That the burden of the word of the Lord will at last become the burden of his judgments. Isaiah had prophesied long since against most of these nations (ch. xiii., &c.) and now at length all his prophecies will have their complete fulfilling. 5. That those who are ambitious of power and dominion commonly become the troublers of the earth and the plagues of their generation. Nebuchadrezzar was so proud of his might that he had no sense of right. These are the men that turn the world upside down, and yet expect to be admired and adored. Alexander thought himself a great prince when others thought him no better than a great pirate. 6. That the greatest pomp and power in this world are of very uncertain continuance. Before Nebuchadrezzar’s greater force kings themselves must yield and become captives.
Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary
Vs. 15-29: THE CUP OF DIVINE WRATH TO BE SHARED
1. Jeremiah is commanded of the Lord to take from His hand the wine cup of His wrath, (vs. 15-16).
a. He is to take the cup to the nations that the Lord will indicate -causing them to drink of it, (vs. 15; comp. Jer 51:7).
b. The choice as to whether they will drink it is not theirs; they WILL DRINK of it in helpless bewilderment, (vs. 16a; comp. Jer 13:13; Psa 75:7-8; Jer 51:39; Eze 23:34).
c. They will stagger under the blow of the sword that the Lord will send against them in the day of His indignation and wrath.
2. So, Jeremiah took the cup from the hand of the Lord and caused all those nations, to whom he was sent, to taste its bitter dregs, (vs. 17-26). Just how Jeremiah went about revealing this message of divine indignation, to all nations, is not revealed; it is sufficient for us to know that he fulfilled the divinely-appointed task.
a. Judgment was to begin with God’s own people: Jerusalem and Judea, with her kings and princes; the effect would be waste, horror, hissing and a curse, (vs. 18; Psa 60:3; Isa 51:17).
b. Judgment would also fall upon Pharaoh, king of Egypt, with his princes, servants and people – the nation on which Judah leaned, rather than trust in Jehovah, (vs. 19; comp. Jer 46:2-28).
c. The cup is to be passed to every kingdom and nation upon the face of the earth, (vs. 20-26a).
d. After the others have drunken of the fury of God’s wrath, it must also be drunken by the king of Sheshach-Babylon (vs. 26, 27; Jer 51:1; Jer 51:41-44; Hab 2:15-16).
1) Jehovah is Lord and Judge of ALL nations -irrespective of whether they acknowledge His lordship.
2) He deals justly with men and nations; all are guilty of sin, and without excuse before Him, (Rom 1:20; Rom 3:19; Rom 3:23; Rom 6:23).
3. None will be permitted to refuse the cup; they will surely drink of it; none may escape the divine judgment appointed them because of their sins, (vs. 27-29; comp. Isa 63:3; Jer 49:12).
a. If God’s judgment BEGINS with the city that is called by His name (1Ki 8:43), it is vain for others to imagine that THEY can escape it! (vs. 29a; Jer 13:3; Isa 10:12-14; comp. Eze 9:5-10; 1Pe 4:17).
b. The sword of justice has been summoned against all the inhabitants of the earth, (vs. 29b, 31; Isa 66:15-16).
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
Jeremiah now explains more at large what might on account of its brevity have appeared obscure. He had spoken of all nations, but his discourse was abrupt; for he had not yet openly told us that he had been sent by God as a herald to summon all kings and nations before his tribunal, and to declare what was to be. As, then, the Prophet had referred to nothing of this kind, his discourse was ambiguous. But he now declares that a cup from God’s hand had been delivered to him, which he was to give to all nations to drink. We hence see that there is here nothing new, but that the Prophet is, as it were, the interpreter of his previous prophecy, which was briefly stated.
Moreover, that what he said might have more weight, he relates a vision, Thus said Jehovah the God of Israel unto me, Take the cup of the wine of this fury from my hand (135) We have said in other places that the fulfillment of prophetic truth was not without reason dwelt upon, and that the servants of God were so armed, as though the execution of all that they alleged was ready at hand. They were said to demolish cities and to overthrow kingdoms even for this reason, because such was the torpidity of men, that they gave no credit to God, except they were brought to see the event as it were before their eyes. But as this subject has been handled more fully elsewhere, I shall only touch upon it here. He then says, that a cup had been delivered to him by God’s hand; by which words he intimates, that he did not come forth of his own will to terrify the Jews and other nations, but that he faithfully proclaimed what had been committed to him; and he also intimates, that God spoke nothing now but what he meant shortly to execute; and this is what is to be understood by the word cup.
He calls it the cup of the wine of fury, or of wrath. This metaphor often occurs in the prophets, but in a different sense. For God is said sometimes to inebriate men when he stupifies them, and drives them at one time to madness, and at another time deprives them of common sense and understanding, so that they become like beasts; but he is said also to inebriate them, when, by outward calamities, he fills them with astonishment. So now the Prophet calls calamity the cup of wrath, even that calamity, which like fire was to inflame the minds of all those who received no benefit from chastisements. Madness, indeed, means no other thing than the despair of those who perceive God’s hand stretched out against them, and thus rage and clamor, and curse heaven and earth, themselves and God. This is what we are to understand by wrath He compares this wrath to wine, because they who are thus smitten by God’s hand are carried away as it were beyond themselves, and repent not, nor think of their sins with calmness of mind, but abandon themselves to a furious rage. We now then understand why the Prophet says, that the cup of the wine of wrath had been given to him.
Then he adds, An, make all the nations to whom I send thee (136) to drink it Here, again, he confirms what I lately referred to, that his office was farther extended than to teach in the middle of the Church, but that he had also been chosen to proclaim as a herald God’s judgments on all nations. He was, indeed, sent to the Jews otherwise than to heathen nations, for he was set over them as a teacher, and that for their salvation, provided they were not irreclaimable; but he was sent to the heathens expressly to threaten them with what was nigh at hand. He was, however, sent both to the Jews and to all other nations, as he will hereafter more distinctly shew in due order.
We now see the design and object of what is here said; — to add authority to his last prophecy, Jeremiah, in the first place, sets forth the vision which had been presented to him; and then he testifies that he brought nothing of his own, but only obeyed God and faithfully performed his commands; and thirdly, he intimates that he was not only appointed a teacher in the Church of God, but was also a witness of his vengeance on all nations. It follows, —
(135) I conceive that the sentence may be thus rendered, —
Take the cup of the wine of fury, even this, from my hand.
So do Gataker and Venema render the sentence, referring “this” to the cup and not to “fury.” The word for “fury” is heat; it means hot, boiling, or burning wrath, — rendered “fury” by the Vulg. and Syr., — “malediction” by the Targ., and “unmixed” (the cup of this unmixed wine) by the Sept. — Ed.
(136) Literally, “whom I send thee to them;” which the Sept. have rendered almost word for word, πρὸς ἅ (ἔθνη)-πρὸς αὐτούς; but the first, πρὸς is not in the original. This was an attempt to transplant the peculiarity of one language to another, which is often the ease with the Septuagint. The Welsh is literally the same with the Hebrew. — Ed
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
C. Judgment on Surrounding Nations Jer. 25:15-29
TRANSLATION
(15) For thus says the LORD, God of Israel, unto me: Take this cup of wine, wrath, from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I am about to send you to drink it. (16) And they shall drink and they shall stagger and behave like a madman because of the sword which I am about to send among them. (17) And I took the CUP from the hand of the LORD and I caused all nations to whom the LORD had sent me to drink it. (18) Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and her kings and her princes, to make them a desolation, and astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day. (19) Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and all of his servants, his princes, and all of his people; (20) and all the mingled people; all the kings of the land of Uz; and all the kings of the land of the Philistine (even Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); (21) Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon; (22) and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and all the kings of the isles which are beyond the sea; (23) Dedan, Tema, and Buz, and all who clip the corners of their hair; (24) and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the midst of the desert; (25) and all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; (26) and all the kings of the north, near and far, one after another; and to all the kingdoms of the world which are upon the face of the earth. And the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. (27) Then say unto them; Thus says the LORD of hosts God of Israel: Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall and do not arise because of the sword which I am about to send among you. (28) And it shall come to pass, if they refuse to take the cup from your hand to drink, then say unto them; Thus says the LORD of hosts: You shall surely drink! (29) For behold, if I am beginning to destroy the city which is called by My name, shall you go completely unpunished? You shall not go unpunished; for I am about to call a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth (oracle of the LORD).
COMMENTS
The figure of drinking from the wine cup of Gods wrath is not one which is uncommon in prophetic literature.[230] The origin of the figure is uncertain. Some relate it to the practice recorded in Num. 5:11-31 where a woman suspected of adultery was required to drink a loathsome potion with disastrous results to her if guilty. Bright suggests that the figure may go back to the practice of giving those who were marked for execution some brew to tranquillize them and render them incapable of struggle. Be that as it may, Jeremiah is here commanded to take the cup of wrath from the hand of God and cause the nations of the world to drink of it (Jer. 25:15). The nations after drinking of that brew will become as intoxicated men, like raving lunatics. Their incoherence and utter confusion is brought about by news of the approach of the sword of the Lord, the armies which He will use to execute His judgment (Jer. 25:16). Jeremiah relates that he complied with the commandment of the Lord and caused the nations of the world to drink of Gods deadly cup (Jer. 25:17).
[230] Isa. 51:17; Isa. 51:22 : Eze. 23:31-34; Hab. 2:16; Psa. 60:3; Jer. 49:12; Jer. 51:7, etc.
The real problem is to determine the nature of the episode recorded here. If the student of Jeremiah will take the time to locate all the countries named in Jer. 25:18-26 he will immediately see that it would have been impossible for Jeremiah to literally visit all the nations. What then took place in this passage? Is this a vision or a symbolic act or merely rhetoric? Some think that Jeremiah in a visionary experience took a wine cup from the hand of God and passed it among the nations. In this case Jeremiah is here describing what he saw in a vision. Yet no positive indication of a vision is present in the passage. Others think that a symbolic act was performed by the prophet. He actually took a cup of wine, explained its significance, and passed it around among the ambassadors of these various lands who were present in Jerusalem. Its difficult, however, to imagine that ambassadors from distant Media and Elam would have been present in Jerusalem. Other commentators think that the cup which Jeremiah is told to pass among the nations is metaphorical. The prophet passes the cup by preaching his message of Gods wrath against the nations. However the account seems to bear all the earmarks of an actual experience. God told Jeremiah to pass a wine cup among the nations (Jer. 25:15) and he carried out the command (Jer. 25:17). The nations to whom he carried the cup apparently could reject it (Jer. 25:28). Although none of the explanations of this episode are without their difficulties it seems to this writer that a symbolic act was performed most likely involving the ambassadors of the various lands mentioned in Jer. 25:18-26.
In Jer. 25:18-26 Jeremiah enumerates the nations to whom he carried the cup of Gods wrath. First, of course, stands Jerusalem and the cities of Judah. The kings (Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin and Zedekiah) and princes of Judah shall drink of that cup of judgment and their land will become a desolation, a horrible and shocking sight as at this day (Jer. 25:18). The last phrase of Jer. 25:18 implies that in the view of Jeremiah the desolation of Jerusalem had already begun in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. This episode of the wine cup of wrath must have occurred not long after the invasion of Judah by Nebuchadnezzar in 605 B.C. In the view of Jeremiah the desolations of Judah and Jerusalem began with that invasion, not with the destruction of Jerusalem in 587 B.C. The foreign nations which were required to drink the cup of Gods judgment are fourteen in number.
1. Egypt is the southernmost country named. The oracles against Egypt also stand first in the collection of foreign nation oracles at the end of the Book of Jeremiah. The mixed multitudes or mingled people mentioned in Jer. 25:20 were probably foreigners who dwelled within the borders of Egypt. Some of these mingled people joined the Israelites during their exodus from Egypt many years earlier (Num. 11:4).
2. The location of the land of Uz is uncertain. It seems to have been in close proximity to Edom (cf. Lam. 4:21). Job was a citizen of this land (Job. 1:1). No kingdom by this name is found in the historical records of antiquity.
3. Philistia to the southwest of Judah would next taste the cup. Four of the major Philistine cities, Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and Ashdod are named specifically. Gath, the fifth city of the Philistine pentapolis, is omitted here as in Amo. 1:6-8. Of Ashdod only a remnant remained after the siege and capture by Pharaoh Psammetichus I (663609 B.C.).
4. 5, 6. The transjordan kingdoms of Edom, Moab and Ammon are next named. These kingdoms are named in order from south to north.
7. Phoenicia with her two major cities of Tyre and Sidon and her overseas colonies would also drink from the cup.
8, 9, 10. Three tribes of northern Arabia, Dedan, Tema, and Buz are next named. The Dedanites were descended from Abraham and Keturah (Gen. 25:3) and had a reputation for being traders (Eze. 27:15; Eze. 27:20; Eze. 38:13). Tema was a tribe related to Abraham through his son Ishmael (Gen. 25:15). Buz was a tribe de scended from Nahor, Abrahams brother (Gen. 22:21). All of these tribes are identified as those who clip the corners of the hair. The custom of cutting away the hair from the temples is forbidden to the Israelites in Lev. 19:27. No doubt the custom had some pagan religious significance.
11. The kings of Arabia and the mingled people who are associated with them will also taste of the judgment of God. These tribes dwelled almost due east of the populated region of Transjordan.
12. Zimri as the name of a people is not found else where. Some relate this people to the desert tribes just mentioned while others associate them with the two kingdoms named along with Zimri in Jer. 25:25.
13. Elam, east of Babylon, had already begun to fade as an independent people and was shortly to be absorbed by the Medes and later by Persia.
14. The Medes were one of the most powerful nations of Jeremiahs day. They were located east of Assyria and north of Elam. They had been instrumental in the overthrow of Nineveh in 612 B.C. Media eventually merged with Persia under the leadership of Cyrus the Great. The Medo-Persian empire fell before the armies of Alexander the Great.
In addition to the nations specifically named, the Lord indicates that many other nations must also drink of the cup of destruction. Kings of the north, some near and some distant, indeed all kingdoms of the civilized world would drink. But last of all the king of Sheshach would drink of that deadly cup. Sheshach is a cipher, a cryptic way of writing the name Babylon. In this system of writing, the alphabet is written along a line and then on another line is written again in reverse order. The first letter corresponds to the last, the second letter corresponds to the last but one, etc. When this system is followed in Hebrew, Babylon comes out being spelled Sheshech. The same device is used again in Jer. 51:41. It is not clear why Jeremiah chose to use this code name for Babylon. Certainly he was not afraid to speak out plainly concerning the fate of Babylon (cf. Jer. 25:12). Perhaps Jeremiah changed the name Babylon to Sheshach in one of the later editions of his book after this cipher came into common use among the captives in Babylon. Then too, the word Sheshach sounds in Hebrew very like a word that means humiliation. A play on words might be intended.
As Jeremiah hands his symbolic cup to each nation he is to instruct them to drink its contents. They will, he predicts, begin to act as intoxicated men, staggering, vomiting, falling. But that is one stupor from which they would never awake. Thus does Jeremiah picture in figurative language the irrational, incoherent, and helpless behavior as Nebuchadnezzar marches against these lands (Jer. 25:27). If the representatives to whom he offers the symbolic cup refuse to receive it from his hand, Jeremiah is to assure them that they must indeed drink of the cup of divine destruction whether or not they cooperate in sipping from the symbolic cup (Jer. 25:28). The rationale for the impending destruction of the nations is very simple. God had already begun to bring judgmental calamity upon the beloved city of Jerusalem, the city where His Temple stood, the city where some of His faithful worshipers lived. Jerusalem is called by the name of God i.e., it belonged to Him, it was His special city. If Jerusalem must taste of divine wrath, do the nations think that they shall escape scot-free? They too will suffer at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, the divinely appointed sword (Jer. 25:29).
Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series
(15) For thus saith the Lord God.In the LXX. this is preceded by Jeremiah 46-51, which are in their turn in a different order from that of the Hebrew.
The wine cup of this fury.Literally, the cup of wine, even this fury, or, better, this wrath.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
15. Wine cup “A flagon filled with wrath.” See Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Isa 51:17; Isa 51:22, etc.
Cause the nations to drink Not literally the representatives of the nations assembled at Jerusalem, as Michaelis explains, but symbolically, in prophetic vision. “As the wrath of God is no essence that may be drunk by the bodily act, so, manifestly, the cup is no material cup, and the drinking is no act of outer physical reality.”
Keil.
All The Nations Will Be Made To Drink From The Cup Of YHWH’s Wrath Against Sin And Idolatry ( Jer 25:15-29 ).
In these remarkable words the destinies of all nations are seen as in YHWH’s hands. And their destiny is to be drunk and to reel about as a result of YHWH’s wrath (antipathy against sin). None will escape. It is also an interesting summary of the nations of the area as seen by Jeremiah. The command to take the cup and make the nations drink it, and its fulfilment, is, of course, symbolic of Jeremiah pronouncing judgment against those nations. His words would have the effect of bringing what he spoke of about.
Jer 25:15
‘For thus says YHWH, the God of Israel, to me, “Take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.”
The visitation of God’s wrath (His antipathy against sin) is often seen in terms of drinking wine from a cup. It was a fitting picture of nations reeling at the disasters that came on them. It was the cup from which our Lord Himself would drink. See Jer 13:12-14; Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Isa 51:21-22; Lam 4:21; Eze 23:31-34; Oba 1:16; Hab 2:16; Zec 12:2; Mar 10:39; Mar 14:36; Luk 22:42; Joh 18:11; Rev 14:8; Rev 14:10; Rev 16:19; Rev 18:6). Jeremiah would take the cup and male the nations drink of it by proclaiming YHWH’s words.
Jer 25:16
“ And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.”
The cup is defined in terms of the sword at work among them in the hands of other nations. The reeling to and fro and being mad is an apt picture of the effects of war at the hands of a powerful conqueror.
Jer 25:17
“Then I took the cup at YHWH’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom YHWH had sent me,”
We have no way of knowing whether Jeremiah used any prophetic symbolism in this act of making the nations drink of the cup of the wrath of God. He may have done it in vision, or by symbolically offering wine to visiting ambassadors who would arrive in Jerusalem when plots were afoot to rebel against Babylonian rule (although this would be a little pointless unless it was accompanied with an explanation), or it may simply have been by proclaiming YHWH’s word ‘into the air’ (Jer 25:27) in the way in which the prophets often made denunciations against enemies (e.g. Jer 6:18-19).
Jer 25:18
“Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and its kings, and its princes, to make them a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
The first to drink are Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, along with their kings (the king and his co-regents, or alternatively successive kings) and princes. And it would result in their being desolated and becoming a spectacle to all nations, a cause for astonishment and hissing and a curse. Compare Jer 18:16. The words ‘as at this day’ indicate that the words were written down after their fulfilment.
Jer 25:19-22
“Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people; and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of the Uz, and all the kings of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, and Moab, and the children of Ammon; and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the isle which is beyond the sea;”
The list commences with Judah’s nearest neighbours, commencing with the most powerful. It is comprehensive in scope covering not only the kings and their peoples, but also any who had come to dwell among them (‘all the mingled people’). Once mentioned of Egypt it is assumed for the remainder in the mention of their kings.
Egypt and Uz (a part of Edom, possibly mentioned because at this time seen as under the control of Egypt) were to the south, Philistia with its principal cities to the west, Edom, Moab and Ammon to the south east and the east, and Tyre and Sidon to the north west. The isle which was beyond the sea may have been Cyprus. The description of Ashdod demonstrated how it had suffered at the hands of Egypt under Psammeticus who had subjected it to a 29 year siege..
Jer 25:23-24
“Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who have the corners of their hair cut off; and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mingled people who dwell in the wilderness;”
The description then goes beyond the nearest neighbours to those more distant, in the south east, the Arab cities in Arabia, whose distinctive hair style is described (it was always seen as indicative of idolatry), and all the varied tribes which occupied the desert.
Jer 25:25-26
“And all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes; and all the kings of the north, far and near, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the face of the earth: and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.”
Zimri is unknown but was seemingly within the same area as the Elamites and the Medes to the north east. ‘All the kings of the north far and near’ is comprehensive, and any nation omitted is swept up in the description of ‘all the kingdoms of the (known) world, which are on the face of the earth’ which indicates those beyond Judah’s usual purview.
Finally Sheshach (Babylon) would drink after them. Sheshach is written in ‘code’ with the letters of the Hebrew alphabet reversed. Thus for Aleph Taw would be written, for Beth SHin would be written, for Gimel Resh would be written, and so on. Thus SheSHaCH signifies BaBeL. The purpose was probably not in order to hide the name from the uninitiated (the Babylonian spies were not stupid and such codes were well known) but in order to indicate that the world would be turned upside down.
Jer 25:27
“And you shall say to them, ‘Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, Drink you, and be drunken, and spew, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”
The picture of the drunkard drinking, and becoming more and more drunk, and vomiting, and then collapsing in a state of total inebriation is vividly descriptive of the confusion irrationality and effects of warfare. Notice that it is YHWH of the hosts of Heaven and earth, the God of Israel, Who is personally sending this sword among them.
Jer 25:28
“And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you will say to them, Thus says YHWH of hosts, You shall surely drink.”
And that is why they have no choice but to drink. They cannot demur. They have no option. For YHWH of Hosts has determined that they will drink. There is an unashamed emphasis on the total sovereignty of YHWH as controller of all the hosts of men, all men’s armies.
Jer 25:29
“For, lo, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name, and should you be utterly unpunished? You will not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says YHWH of hosts.”
And this had necessarily to be so because if YHWH was beginning to work evil on ‘the city which was called by His Name’ (Jerusalem) because they had followed the ways of the nations, how could the nations whose ways they had followed go unpunished? It would not be so, for YHWH of hosts was calling for the sword to come upon them.
‘The city which is called by My Name.’ This is an unusual phrase occurring elsewhere only in Dan 9:18-19. Usually it is ‘the house which is called by My Name’ (Jer 7:10-11; Jer 7:14; Jer 7:30). But see 2Ki 21:4; 2Ki 21:7 ; 2Ki 23:27. It was the place where YHWH had chosen to set His Name.
Jer 25:15. Take the wine-cup, &c. Take the cup of the wine of this wrath. There can be no doubt that what is here related passed in vision, and that Jeremiah relates simply what was represented to his view; which, putting into writing, he sent to the several nations where God ordered him to publish it. See the note on chap. Jer 13:4. Those circumstances which constitute the good and evil of human life are often represented in Scripture as the ingredients of a cup, which God, as master of a feast, mixes up, and distributes to the several guests, as he thinks fit. Hence when our Saviour asks his disciples James and John, whether they were able to drink of the cup which he was to drink of, he means, whether they had resolution and patience to undergo the like sufferings and afflictions as his Father had allotted for him. Mat 20:22. And in the like sense he prays, Mat 26:39, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Accordingly by this image of “the cup of the wine of God’s wrath” we are to understand those dreadful and afflictive judgments, which an incensed God was about to inflict on the objects of his displeasure. And Jeremiah the prophet, who announced them, is considered as acting the part of a cupbearer, carrying the cup round to those who were appointed to drink of it; the effects of which were to appear in the intoxication, that is, the terror and astonishment, the confusion and desolation, which should prevail among them. See Bishop Lowth’s note on Isa 51:21 and compare Rev 14:10; Rev 16:19.
This scripture can need no other comment, than what is contained in Rev 14:10 . By Jeremiah’s taking the cup, and making all these nations drink of it, is meant, making them to hear and know that the wrath of God is coming upon them. The Lord had indeed been chastizing his children: but when that was accomplished, the rod should be burnt or destroyed.
Jer 25:15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel unto me; Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
Ver. 15. Take the wine cup of this fury. ] a Or, Take this smoking wine cup. A “cup” is oft put for “affliction,” and wine for extreme confusion and wrath. Poison in wine works more furiously than in water. Psa 75:8
And cause all the nations. a Utitur demonstratione seu ostento divino.
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 25:15-16
15For thus the LORD, the God of Israel, says to me, Take this cup of the wine of wrath from My hand and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. 16They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.
Jer 25:15 this cup of the wine This is a Hebrew idiom for judgment (cf. Jer 13:13; Jer 51:7; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Isa 51:22). Notice it again asserts that YHWH, not the gods of the nations, controls the outcome of wars and international treaties, etc. (cf. Jer 25:28; Jer 1:10; Deu 32:8).
This same imagery is used of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane (cf. Mat 26:39; also note Mat 20:22).
Notice the number of times the VERBS related to drinking/drunkenness are used.
1. give to drink – BDB 1052, KB 1639, Hiphil PERFECT, Jer 25:15; Jer 25:17
2. drink – BDB 1059, KB 1667, Qal PERFECT, Jer 25:16; Jer 25:26; Jer 25:28 (thrice)
3. be drunk – BDB 1016, KB 1500, Qal IMPERATIVE, Jer 25:28
4. surely drink – BDB 1059, KB 1667, INFINITIVE ABSOLUTE and Qal IMPERFECT of the same root for intensity, Jer 25:27
the LORD God of Israel. See note on Jer 11:3.
wine. Hebrew. yayin. App-27.
Jer 25:15-16
Jer 25:15-16
For thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, unto me: take this cup of the wine of wrath at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
The cup of the wine of wrath…
(Jer 25:15). This was no literal cup, but a symbol of God’s wrath against many nations, a number of which would be named in this very chapter. Significantly, even the apostate church was made to drink of the cup of the wine of God’s wrath in Rev 18:6. It is also of very great significance that at the very time when God’s people were to drink of the wine of God’s wrath, the nations of mankind who knew not the Lord were also summoned to drink of the same cup! So will it be at the end of the age. When the final apostasy of mankind has taken place, and even the church has disappeared, or nearly so, from the face of the earth, as foretold by the Saviour in Luk 18:8, at that very moment the destruction of all the world shall immediately follow upon the occasion of the final Judgment, the redeemed in Christ Jesus being the sole exceptions!
The metaphor of God’s giving the nations a cup of wrath that caused them to be mad and drunken ascribes “all that happens,” whether good or evil, to God. This is hard for moderns to understand; but all of the prophets stressed this. “Shall there be evil in a city, and Jehovah hath not done it” (Amo 3:6)? How is God the author of evil? He has created the laws of control, not merely for the universe, but for men as well; and when men violate God’s laws of control, evil is sure to result. In that sense, God does the evil. This was a necessary point of view on the part of God’s prophets, because the pagans ascribed all evil to members of their pagan pantheon. The Great Truth proclaimed by the prophets was that God is the First Cause, and the Last Cause, and the Only Cause. As Cheyne stated it: “The faith of the Prophets compared to ours was as an oak tree to a sapling; and therefore they could express the truth of the Universal Causation of Jehovah with perfect tranquillity.”
The sword that I will send among them…
(Jer 25:16). This could mean the actual sword of human warfare, or God’s own sword, as mentioned in Gen 3:24. God is not dependent upon the swords of men for the accomplishment of his will. Many other instruments are available to the Eternal God.
Take: Jer 13:12-14, Job 21:20, Psa 11:6, Psa 75:8, Isa 51:17, Isa 51:22, Rev 14:10, Rev 14:19
all: Jer 25:27-33
Reciprocal: Deu 28:34 – General Psa 60:3 – to drink Isa 19:14 – as a Isa 23:1 – burden Isa 34:2 – the indignation Isa 45:20 – escaped Jer 1:10 – I have Jer 9:15 – I will Jer 13:13 – I will Jer 23:9 – like a drunken Jer 46:1 – against Jer 48:2 – thou shalt Jer 48:26 – ye him Lam 3:15 – filled Lam 4:21 – the cup Eze 4:1 – take Eze 23:32 – drink Eze 29:12 – desolate in Eze 30:3 – the time Eze 32:9 – when Eze 32:32 – General Eze 36:5 – against the Eze 36:7 – the heathen Oba 1:15 – the day Oba 1:16 – as ye Nah 1:2 – is furious Nah 3:11 – shalt be drunken Hab 2:15 – unto Zec 12:2 – a cup Mat 20:22 – the cup Mar 10:38 – drink of the Luk 22:42 – cup Rev 10:11 – Thou Rev 15:7 – seven Rev 16:19 – in
Jer 25:15. The prophet now comes to the front and does the speaking for the Lord, whereas he has been wording his writing as if God was doing the speaking direct. Wine and all items connected with the industry are used figuratively in the Bible to represent wrath and vengeance, In keeping with this usage of figures the prophet is told to take charge of the cup of wrath that Is in the hand of God and cause the nations to drink from it. This is a figurative way of telling the prophet to pass the Lord’s threats of vengeance on to the nations.
Jer 25:15-16. Thus saith the Lord, Take the wine-cup of this fury, &c. Those circumstances which constitute the good and evil of human life are often represented in Scripture as the ingredients of a cup, which God, as master of a feast, mixes up, and distributes to the several guests as he thinks fit. Hence, when our Saviour asks James and John, whether they were able to drink of the cup which he was to drink of, he means, whether they had resolution and patience to undergo the like sufferings as his Father had allotted for him. And in the like sense he prays, If it be possible let this cup pass from me. Accordingly, by this image of the wine-cup of Gods wrath, we are to understand those dreadful judgments which an incensed God was about to inflict on the objects of his displeasure. And Jeremiah the prophet, who announced them, is considered as acting the part of a cup-bearer, carrying the cup round to those who were appointed to drink of it; the effects of which were to appear in the intoxication, that is, the terror and astonishment, the confusion and desolation, that should prevail among them. Blaney. See notes on Psa 11:6; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:21.
25:15 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel to me; {m} Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it.
(m) Signifying the extreme affliction that God had appointed for everyone, Psa 75:8, Isa 51:17 and this cup which the wicked drink, is more bitter than that which he gives to his children, for he measures the one by mercy, and the other by justice.
Yahweh’s cup of wrath for the nations 25:15-29
The Lord instructed Jeremiah to take from His hand, figuratively, a cup (or flagon) of His wrath, and to cause all the nations-to whom the Lord would send him-to drink from it. The cup is a common figure for the wrath of God in Scripture (cf. Jer 13:12-14; Jer 49:12; Jer 51:7; Job 21:20; Psa 60:3; Psa 75:8; Isa 51:17; Isa 51:21-22; Lam 4:21; Eze 23:31-34; Hab 2:16; Mar 10:39; Mar 14:36; Luk 22:42; Joh 18:11; Rev 14:8; Rev 14:10; Rev 16:19; Rev 18:6). It is also a symbol of God’s blessing (cf. Psa 16:5; Psa 23:5; Luk 22:17; Luk 22:20; 1Co 10:16; 1Co 11:24-25). In a larger sense, it refers to one’s lot in life, be it cursing or blessing. This was another symbolic action that God prescribed to communicate to His people, though in this case the action was not literal.
CHAPTER XVI
JEHOVAH AND THE NATIONS
Jer 25:15-38
“Jehovah hath a controversy with the nations.”- Jer 25:31
As the son of a king only learns very gradually that his fathers authority and activity extend beyond the family and the household, so Israel in its childhood thought of Jehovah as exclusively concerned with itself.
Such ideas as omnipotence and universal Providence did not exist; therefore they could not be denied; and the limitations of the national faith were not essentially inconsistent with later Revelation. But when we reach the period of recorded prophecy we find that, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the prophets had begun to recognise Jehovahs dominion over surrounding peoples. There was, as yet, no deliberate and formal doctrine of omnipotence, but, as Israel became involved in the fortunes first of one foreign power and then of another, the prophets asserted that the doings of these heathen states were overruled by the God of Israel. The idea of Jehovahs Lordship of the Nations enlarged with the extension of international relations, as our conception of the God of Nature has expanded with the successive discoveries of science. Hence, for the most part, the prophets devote special attention to the concerns of Gentile peoples. Hosea, Micah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi are partial exceptions. Some of the minor prophets have for their main subject the doom of a heathen empire. Jonah and Nahum deal with Nineveh, Habakkuk with Chaldea, and Edom is specially honoured by being almost the sole object of the denunciations of Obadiah. Daniel also deals with the fate of the kingdoms of the world, but in the Apocalyptic fashion of the Pseudepigrapha. Jewish criticism rightly declined to recognise this book as prophetic, and relegated it to the latest collection of canonical scriptures.
Each of the other prophetical books contains a longer or shorter series of utterances concerning the neighbours of Israel, its friends and foes, its enemies and allies. The fashion was apparently set by Amos, who shows Gods judgment upon Damascus, the Philistines, Tyre, Edom, Ammon, and Moab. This list suggests the range of the prophets religious interest in the Gentiles. Assyria and Egypt were, for the present, beyond the sphere of Revelation, just as China and India were to the average Protestant of the seventeenth century. When we come to the Book of Isaiah, the horizon widens in every direction. Jehovah is concerned with Egypt and Ethiopia, Assyria and Babylon. In very short books like Joel and Zephaniah we could not expect exhaustive treatment of this subject. Yet even these prophets deal with the fortunes of the Gentiles: Joel, variously held one of the latest or one of the earliest of canonical books, pronounces a Divine judgment on Tyre and Sidon and the Philistines, on Egypt and Edom; and Zephaniah, an elder contemporary of Jeremiah, devotes sections to the Philistines, Moab and Ammon, Ethiopia and Assyria.
The fall of Nineveh revolutionised the international system of the East. The judgment on Asshur was accomplished, and her name disappears from these catalogues of doom. In other particulars Jeremiah, as well as Ezekiel, follows closely in the footsteps of his predecessors. He deals, like them, with the group of Syrian and Palestinian states-Philistines, Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Damascus He dwells with repeated emphasis on Egypt, and Arabia is represented by Kedar and Hazor. In one section the prophet travels into what must have seemed to his contemporaries the very far East, as far as Elam. On the other hand, he is comparatively silent about Tyre, in which Joel, Amos, the Book of Isaiah, and above all Ezekiel display a lively interest. Nebuchadnezzars campaigns were directed against Tyre as much as against Jerusalem; and Ezekiel, living in Chaldea, would have attention forcibly directed to the Phoenician capital, at a time when Jeremiah was absorbed in the fortunes of Zion.
But in the passage which we have chosen as the subject for this introduction to the prophecies of the nations, Jeremiah takes a somewhat wider range:-
“Thus saith unto me Jehovah, the God of Israel:
Take at My hand this cup of the wine of fury,
And make all the nations, to whom I send thee, drink it.
They shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad
Because of the sword that I will send among them.”
First and foremost of these nations, preeminent in punishment as in privilege, stand “Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with its kings and princes.”
This bad eminence is a necessary application of the principle laid down by Amo 3:2 :-
“You only have I known of all the families of the earth:
Therefore I will visit upon you all your iniquities.”
But as Jeremiah says later on, addressing the Gentile nations, –
“I begin to work evil at the city which is called by My name.
Should ye go scot free?
Ye shall not go scot free.”
And the prophet puts the cup of Gods fury to their lips also, and amongst them, Egypt, the bete noir of Hebrew seers, is most conspicuously marked out for destruction: “Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants and princes and all his people, and all the mixed population of Egypt.” Then follows, in epic fashion, a catalogue of “all the nations” as Jeremiah knew them: “All the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines; Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Zidon, and the kings of their colonies beyond the sea; Dedan and Tema and Buz, and all that have the corners of their hair polled, and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed populations that dwell in the desert; all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of the Medes.” Jeremiahs definite geographical information is apparently exhausted, but he adds by way of summary and conclusion: “And all the kings of the north, far and near, one after the other; and all the kingdoms of the world, which are on the face of the earth.”
There is one notable omission in the list. Nebuchadnezzar, the servant of Jehovah, {Jer 25:9} was the Divinely appointed scourge of Judah and its neighbours and allies. Elsewhere {Jer 27:8} the nations are exhorted to submit to him, and here apparently Chaldea is exempted from the general doom, just as Ezekiel passes no formal sentence on Babylon. It is true that “all the kingdoms of the earth” would naturally include Babylon, possibly were even intended to do so. But the Jews were not long content with so veiled a reference to their conquerors and oppressors. Some patriotic scribe added the explanatory note, “And the king of Sheshach (i.e., Babylon) shall drink after them.” Sheshach is obtained from Babel by the cipher Athbash, according to which an alphabet is written out and a reversed alphabet written out underneath it, and the letters of the lower row used for those of the upper and vice versa.
The use of cypher seems to indicate that the note was added in Chaldea during the Exile, when it was not safe to circulate documents which openly denounced Babylon. Jeremiahs enumeration of the peoples and rulers of his world is naturally more detailed and more exhaustive than the list of the nations against which he prophesied. It includes the Phoenician states, details the Philistine cities, associates with Elam the neighbouring nations of Zimri and the Medes, and substitutes for Kedar and Hazor Arabia and a number of semi-Arab states, Uz, Dedan, Tema, and Buz. Thus Jeremiahs world is the district constantly shown in Scripture atlases in a map comprising the scenes of Old Testament history, Egypt, Arabia, and Western Asia, south of a line from the northeast corner of the Mediterranean to the southern end of the Caspian Sea, and west of a line from the latter point to the northern end of the Persian Gulf. How much of history has been crowded into this narrow area! Here science, art, and literature won those primitive triumphs which no subsequent achievements could surpass or even equal. Here, perhaps for the first time, men tasted the Dead Sea apples of civilisation, and learnt how little accumulated wealth and national splendour can do for the welfare of the masses. Here was Eden, where God walked in the cool of the day to commune with man; and here also were many Mount Moriahs, where man gave his firstborn for his transgression, the fruit of his body for the sin of his soul, and no angel voice stayed his hand.
And now glance at any modern map and see for how little Jeremiahs world counts among the great Powers of the nineteenth century. Egypt indeed is a bone of contention between European states, but how often does a daily paper remind its readers of the existence of Syria or Mesopotamia? We may apply to this ancient world the title that Byron gave to Rome, “Lone mother of dead empires,” and call it:-
“The desert, where we steer
Stumbling oer recollections.”
It is said that Scipios exultation over the fall of Carthage was marred by forebodings that Time had a like destiny in store for Rome. Where Cromwell might have quoted a text from the Bible, the Roman soldier applied to his native city the Homeric lines:-
“Troy shall sink in fire,
And Priams city with himself expire.”
The epitaphs of ancient civilisations are no mere matters of archaeology; like the inscriptions on common graves, they carry a Memento mori for their successors.
But to return from epitaphs to prophecy: in the list which we have just given, the kings of many of the nations are required to drink the cup of wrath, and the section concludes with a universal judgment upon the princes and rulers of this ancient world under the familiar figure of shepherds, supplemented here by another, that of the “principal of the flock,” or, as we should say, “bellwethers.” Jehovah would break out upon them to rend and scatter like a lion from his covert. Therefore:-
“Howl, ye shepherds, and cry!
Roll yourselves in the dust, ye bellwethers!
The time has fully come for you to be slaughtered.
I will cast you down with a crash, like a vase of porcelain.
Ruin hath overtaken the refuge of the shepherds,
And the way of escape of the bellwethers.”
Thus Jeremiah announces the coming ruin of an ancient world, with all its states and sovereigns, and we have seen that the prediction has been amply fulfilled. We can only notice two other points with regard to this section.
First, then, we have no right to accuse the prophet of speaking from a narrow national standpoint. His words are not the expression of the Jewish adversus omnes alios hostile odium; if they were, we should not hear so much of Judahs sin and Judahs punishment. He applied to heathen states as he did to his own the divine standard of national righteousness, and they too were found wanting. All history confirms Jeremiahs judgment. This brings us to our second point. Christian thinkers have been engrossed in the evidential aspect of these national catastrophes. They served to fulfil prophecy, and therefore the squalor of Egypt and the ruins of Assyria today have seemed to make our way of salvation more safe and certain. But God did not merely sacrifice these holocausts of men and nations to the perennial craving of feeble faith for signs. Their fate must of necessity illustrate His justice and wisdom and love. Jeremiah tells us plainly that Judah and its neighbours had filled up the measure of their iniquity before they were called upon to drink the cup of wrath; national sin justifies Gods judgments. Yet these very facts of the moral failure and decadence of human societies perplex and startle us. Individuals grow old and feeble and die, but saints and heroes do not become slaves of vice and sin in their last days. The glory of their prime is not buried in a dishonoured grave. Nay rather, when all else fails, the beauty of holiness grows more pure and radiant. But of what nation could we say:-
“Let me die the death of the righteous,
Let my last end be like his”?
Apparently the collective conscience is a plant of very slow growth; and hitherto no society has been worthy to endure honourably or even to perish nobly. In Christendom itself the ideals of common action are still avowedly meaner than those of individual conduct. International and collective morality is still in its infancy, and as a matter of habit and system modern states are often wantonly cruel and unjust towards obscure individuals and helpless minorities. Yet surely it shall not always be so; the daily prayer of countless millions for the coming of the Kingdom of God cannot remain unanswered.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary