Jeremiah 25:16-20

16 When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them.”

17 So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations to whom he sent me drink it:

18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a ruin and an object of horror and scorn, a curse^[a] —as they are today;

19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his attendants, his officials and all his people,

20 and all the foreign people there; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines (those of Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the people left at Ashdod);

Jeremiah 25:16-20 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JEREMIAH 25

This chapter contains a prophecy of the destruction of Judea by the king of Babylon; and also of Babylon itself, after the Jews' captivity of seventy years; and likewise of all the nations round about. The date of this prophecy is in Jer 25:1; when the prophet puts the Jews in mind of the prophecies that had been delivered unto them by himself and others, for some years past, without effect, Jer 25:2-7; wherefore they are threatened with the king of Babylon, that he should come against them, and strip them of all their desirable things; make their land desolate, and them captives for seventy years, Jer 25:8-11; at the expiration of which he in his turn shall be punished, and the land of Chaldea laid waste, and become subject to other nations and kings, Jer 25:12-14; and by a cup of wine given to all the nations round about, is signified the utter ruin of them, and who are particularly mentioned by name, Jer 25:15-26; which is confirmed by beginning with the city of Jerusalem, and the destruction of that, Jer 25:27-29; wherefore the prophet is bid to prophesy against them, and to declare the Lord's controversy with them, and that there should be a slaughter of them from one end of the earth to the other, Jer 25:30-33; upon which the shepherds, kings, and rulers of them, are called to lamentation and howling, Jer 25:34-38.

Cross References

• 1. ver 26
• 2. S Psalms 60:3; Nahum 3:11
• 3. Jeremiah 51:7
• 4. ver 27-29
• 5. Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 27:3
• 6. S Jeremiah 13:13
• 7. S Job 12:19
• 8. S 2 Chronicles 29:8
• 9. S Jeremiah 24:9
• 10. S Genesis 19:13; Jeremiah 44:22
• 11. S 2 Kings 18:21
• 12. Isaiah 19:1; Isaiah 20:3; Jeremiah 44:30; Ezekiel 29:2
• 13. S Genesis 10:23; Job 1:1
• 14. S Joshua 13:3; S 2 Chronicles 26:6; S 2 Chronicles 28:18; Zephaniah 2:4-7
• 15. Jeremiah 47:5; Amos 1:7-8
• 16. S Genesis 10:19

Footnotes

• [a] That is, their names to be used in cursing (see 29:22); or, to be seen by others as cursed