The Cup of God’s Wrath
The LORD tells Jeremiah to take from His hand the cup of the wine of wrath and make all the nations drink. Jeremiah obeys, and the long list begins with Jerusalem and Judah before extending across Egypt, Philistia, Edom, Moab, Ammon, the Phoenician coastlands, Arabian peoples, eastern kingdoms, and the northern rulers, ending with Sheshach after all the others.
T15his is what the LORD, the God of Israel, said to me: “Take from My hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink from it. 16And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.” 17So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations drink from it, each one to whom the LORD had sent me, 18to make them a ruin, an object of horror and contempt and cursing, as they are to this day — Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, its kings and officials; 19Pharaoh king of Egypt, his officials, his leaders, and all his people; 20all the mixed tribes; all the kings of Uz; all the kings of the Philistines: Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod; 21Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites; 22all the kings of Tyre and Sidon; the kings of the coastlands across the sea; 23Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who cut the corners of their hair; 24all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes who dwell in the desert; 25all the kings of Zimri, Elam, and Media; 26all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another — all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. And after all of them, the king of Sheshach will drink it too.
Jeremiah is commanded to tell the nations to drink, stagger, vomit, and fall because of the sword the LORD sends among them. If they refuse, they must still drink, for if the LORD begins disaster with the city that bears His name, the nations certainly will not go unpunished.
27“Then you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Drink, get drunk, and vomit. Fall down and never get up again, because of the sword I will send among you.’ 28If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘You most certainly must drink it! 29For behold, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that bears My Name, so how could you possibly go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, for I am calling down a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of Hosts.’
Jeremiah must prophesy that the LORD will roar from on high and thunder against His fold, bringing an uproar to the ends of the earth because He has a case against the nations. Disaster will spread like a storm from nation to nation, and the slain of the LORD will lie unburied from one end of the earth to the other.
30So you are to prophesy all these words against them and say to them: 31The tumult will resound to the ends of the earth 32This is what the LORD of Hosts says: 33Those slain by the LORD on that day will be spread from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be mourned, gathered, or buried. They will be like dung lying on the ground.