Jeremiah 25:15-21

The Cup of God’s Wrath

15 This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from my hand this cup filled with the wine of my wrath and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.
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);
21 Edom, Moab and Ammon;

Jeremiah 25:15-21 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 21

  • 1. S Isaiah 51:17; Jeremiah 49:12; Lamentations 4:21; Ezekiel 23:31; Psalms 75:8; Revelation 14:10
  • 2. Jeremiah 1:5
  • 3. ver 26
  • 4. S Psalms 60:3; Nahum 3:11
  • 5. Jeremiah 51:7
  • 6. ver 27-29
  • 7. Jeremiah 1:10; Jeremiah 27:3
  • 8. S Jeremiah 13:13
  • 9. S Job 12:19
  • 10. S 2 Chronicles 29:8
  • 11. S Jeremiah 24:9
  • 12. S Genesis 19:13; Jeremiah 44:22
  • 13. S 2 Kings 18:21
  • 14. Isaiah 19:1; Isaiah 20:3; Jeremiah 44:30; Ezekiel 29:2
  • 15. S Genesis 10:23; Job 1:1
  • 16. S Joshua 13:3; S 2 Chronicles 26:6; S 2 Chronicles 28:18; Zephaniah 2:4-7
  • 17. Jeremiah 47:5; Amos 1:7-8
  • 18. S Genesis 10:19
  • 19. S Genesis 25:30
  • 20. S Genesis 19:37; S Deuteronomy 23:6
  • 21. S Genesis 19:38; Jeremiah 27:3; Jeremiah 49:1

Footnotes 1

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