Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 25:17
Then took I the cup at the LORD’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
17. Then took I the cup ] not in any literal sense, but in vision; yet “not a mere allegory, but a psychic experience, in which Jeremiah really seems to himself to be forcing the goblet on the nations which he enumerates.” Pe.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Then took I the cup – Not actually offering the wine-cup – Holy Scripture has suffered much from this materialistic way of explaining it: but publicly proclaiming this prophecy in Jerusalem, as the central spot of Gods dealings with men, and leaving it to find its way to the neighboring states.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 17. Then took I the cup – and made all the nations to drink] This cup of God’s wrath is merely symbolical, and simply means that the prophet should declare to all these people that they shall fall under the Chaldean yoke, and that this is a punishment inflicted on them by God for their iniquities. “Then I took the cup;” I declared publicly the tribulation that God was about to bring on Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, and all the nations.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
That is, in the vision; for it cannot be thought that the Lord made the prophet to travel up and down to all the nations afterward named with a cup of wine in his hand.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand,…. In a visionary way, and did as he commanded, and prophesied as he directed him. The prophet was obedient to the heavenly vision, as became him:
and made all the nations to drink, unto whom, the Lord had sent me; not that he travelled through each of the nations with a cup in his hand, as an emblem of what wrath would come upon them, and they should drink deep of; but this was done in vision, and also in prophecy; the prophet publishing the will of God, denouncing his judgments upon the nations, and declaring to them what would befall them.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
This duty imposed by the Lord Jeremiah performs; he takes the cup and makes all peoples drink it. Here the question has been suggested, how Jeremiah performed this commission: whether he made journeys to the various kings and peoples, or, as J. D. Mich. thought, gave the cup to ambassadors, who were perhaps then in Jerusalem. This question is the result of an imperfect understanding of the case. The prophet does not receive from god a flagon filled with wine which he is to give, as a symbol of divine wrath, to the kings and peoples; he receives a cup filled with the wrath of God, which is to intoxicate those that drink of it. 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 of it no act of the outer, physical reality. The whole action is accordingly only emblematical of a real work of God wrought on kings and peoples, and is performed by Jeremiah when he announces what he is commanded. And the announcement he accomplished not by travelling to each of the nations named, but by declaring to the king and his princes in Jerusalem the divine decree of judgment.
The enumeration begins with Judah, Jer 25:18, on which first judgment is to come. Along with it are named Jerusalem, the capital, and the other cities, and then the kings and princes; whereas in what follows, for the most part only the kings, or, alternating with them, the peoples, are mentioned, to show that kings and peoples alike must fall before the coming judgment. The plural “kings of Judah” is used as in Jer 19:3. The consequence of the judgment: to make them a desolation, etc., runs as in Jer 25:9, Jer 25:11, Jer 19:8; Jer 24:9. has here the force: as is now about to happen.
Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
The Prophet now adds that he obeyed God’s command; for he had before often testified that he was constrained to perform his office, which he would have willingly not have done, if he was at liberty. But as he was bound to obey the divine call, it was evident that it was not his fault, and that he was unjustly charged by the people as the author of the evils denounced. We indeed know that the prophets incurred much ill-will and reproach from the refractory and the despisers of God, as though all their calamities were to be imputed to them. Jeremiah then says, that he took the cup and gave it to drink to all the nations: he intimates that he had no desire to do this, but that necessity was laid on him to perform his office. He then shews who these nations were, —
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) Then took I the cup . . .The words describe the act of the prophet as in the ecstasy of vision. One by one the nations are made to drink of that cup of the wrath of Jehovah of which His own country was to have the first and fullest draught. It is a strange example of the literalism of minds incapable of entering into the poetry of a prophets work, that one commentator (Michaelis) has supposed that the prophet offered an actual goblet of wine to the ambassadors of the states named, who were then, as he imagines, assembled at Jerusalem, as in Jer. 27:3.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Jer 25:17 Then took I the cup at the LORD’S hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the LORD had sent me:
Ver. 17. And made all drink, ] viz., In vision, and by denunciation.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 25:17-26
17Then I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations to whom the LORD sent me drink it: 18Jerusalem and the cities of Judah and its kings and its princes, to make them a ruin, a horror, a hissing and a curse, as it is this day; 19Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his princes and all his people; 20and all the foreign people, all the kings of the land of Uz, all the kings of the land of the Philistines (even Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron and the remnant of Ashdod); 21Edom, Moab and the sons of Ammon; 22and all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon and the kings of the coastlands which are beyond the sea; 23and Dedan, Tema, Buz and all who cut the corners of their hair; 24and all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the foreign people who dwell in the desert; 25and all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam and all the kings of Media; 26and all the kings of the north, near and far, one with another; and all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground, and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them.
Jer 25:17 all the nations The list of nations in Jer 25:18-26 is
1. mostly listed in Jeremiah 46-51
2. listed as part of the Persian Empire
Jer 25:23 all who cut the corners of their hair This pagan practice is mentioned two other times in Jeremiah (cf. Jer 9:26; Jer 49:32) and may relate to Lev 19:27-28 or Jer 21:5 (cf. Deu 14:1-2). Its exact nature is uncertain.
Jer 25:26 all the kings of the north, near and far This phrase is used of those nations directly north of Palestine and those of the Fertile Crescent/Mesopotamia.
Sheshach This (BDB 1058) is a cryptogram for Babel (footnote on p. 1001 from the New Oxford Annotated Bible, NRSV). AB says in a footnote, a cipher by which letters of one name, counted from the beginning of the alphabet, are exchanged for corresponding letters counted from the end (p. 161). This is from Jerome. The method is called atbash (also note Jer 51:1).
all the kingdoms of the earth which are upon the face of the ground This is hyperbole (cf. Jer 25:29)! This refers to the nations of which Israel/Judah had knowledge (i.e., the ANE). It would not include China, the Americas, etc., but theologically it would! God loves all the nations and wants all of them to know Him!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
Jer 25:17-19
Jer 25:17-19
Then took I the cup at Jehovah’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom Jehovah had sent me: [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; Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
The cup at Jehovah’s hand…
(Jer 25:17). Although Jeremiah is here represented as giving the cup to the nations, it is actually God who requires men to drink of it. As Green said, This is a cup from which all men have to drink, i.e., the consequences of our wrong choices. Life places it to our lips, and its contents can be very bitter, whether the recipient be a nation or an individual.
To wit, Jerusalem, etc…
(Jer 25:18). The expression to wit means namely. It is used in legal documents to introduce a list or an explanation; and it is so used here. Significantly, it is Jerusalem that leads the list. Why? Judgment begins at the house of God. (1Pe 4:17). When any civilization has become so corrupt that even the people of God must be judged, that civilization in its entirety will most certainly suffer summary judgment. Notice here how all the nations of that whole era are severely judged, condemned, and punished in connection with the judgment against Jerusalem.
In this whole list of the nations scheduled to drink of the cup of the wrath of God, Smith pointed out that the arrangement here is remarkable.
“Jeremiah begins with the extreme south, Egypt; next, he takes Uz on the south-east, and Philistia on the south-west; next, Edom, Moab, and Ammon on the east; and Tyre, Sidon, and the Isles of the Mediterranean on the west; next in the far east, various Arabian nations; and then northward to Media and Elam; and finally to the kings of the north, far and near!”
We shall not attempt a nation by nation analysis of what is written here, because, very obviously, what the prophet reveals here is that “all earthly nations” were to fall under the punitive judgment of Almighty God. That is the simple meaning of this list, which cites nations sprawled all over the world in all directions. “We shall all stand before the judgment seat of God” (2Co 5:10).
Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary
and made: Jer 25:28, Jer 1:10, Jer 27:3, Jer 46:1 – Jer 51:64, Eze 43:3
Reciprocal: Psa 75:8 – For in Isa 51:23 – I will Isa 63:6 – make Jer 22:20 – for Jer 25:9 – against Jer 48:2 – thou shalt Lam 1:21 – thou wilt Eze 3:2 – General Oba 1:1 – concerning Hab 2:5 – gathereth Zec 12:2 – a cup
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jer 25:17. Again the figurative cup is used to indicate that Jeremiah obeyed the order of the Lord and delivered to the nations his predictions against them,
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Jer 25:17. Then took I the cup It is not to be imagined that Jeremiah went round in person to all the nations and kings here enumerated, with a cup of wine in his hand, but, doubtless, what is here related passed in a vision, in which it was represented to his view. This, either by writing, or by some special messenger, he communicated to the several kings and nations to which God ordered him to publish it. Or, he himself actually did what is figuratively designed, that is, he publicly announced the judgments of God severally against them, as we find in the chapters mentioned in the note on Jer 25:13.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Jeremiah gave the messages of divine judgment to the nations to which God sent him. The following list of nations differs from the nations addressed in chapters 46-51 only slightly. Damascus does not appear here, but other nations, not mentioned in that later group, do. [Note: See the map of the ancient Near East at the end of these notes.]
"This section identifying the judgments of God against the evil nations is expanded in chapters 46 through 51. These chapters are appropriately held off until the end of the book of Jeremiah since the main burden of the prophet is the destiny of his own people, Judah, and the record would therefore give precedence to this. Furthermore, the judgments upon the evil nations would fall after the judgment upon Judah, and so the position of chapters 46 through 51 is chronologically fitting at the end of the book." [Note: Jensen, p. 75.]