Jeremiah 25:28

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. IF THEY REFUSE TO TAKE THE CUP ... YE SHALL CERTAINLY DRINK - no effort of theirs to escape destruction will avail....

In this verse the Prophet intimates, that however refractory the nations might be, yet they could effect no good by their obstinacy, for willing or unwilling they would be constrained to drink of the cup. But in order to render the matter more striking, he introduces them as refusing; _If they refuse to take the cup, thou shalt say to them, _says God, _Drinking ye shall drink _We have before said that the Prophet was not set a teacher over the heathens: hence what he declares here appertained not to aliens; but the whole benefit belonged to God’s Church. Therefore what is said was spoken for God’s people, even that they might know that as God had determined to punish the wickedness of men, none of all those threatened with judgment could possibly escape. Men indeed are often like unruly horses, who kick and are ferocious, and rage against their rider, and also bite; but the Prophet shews...

15-29 The evil and the good events of life are often represented in Scripture as cups. Under this figure is represented the desolation then coming upon that part of the world, of which Nebuchadnezzar, who had just began to reign and act, was to be the instrument; but this destroying sword would come from the hand of God. The desolations the sword should make in all these kingdoms, are represented by the consequences of excessive drinking. This may make us loathe the sin of drunkenness, that the consequences of it are used to set forth such a woful condition. Drunkenness deprives men of the use of their reason, makes men as mad. It takes from them the valuable blessing, health; and is a sin which is its own punishment. This may also make us dread the judgments of war. It soon fills a nation with confusion. They will refuse to take the cup at thy hand. They will not believe Jeremiah; but...

EXPOSITION This chapter may be illustrated by a comparison of it with Jeremiah 46:1. There Jeremiah exults ever the destruction of a nation (Egypt) which was one of the chief enemies of God's people, and on hearing or reading the inspired eloquence of the prophet the heart of a Jew could not but be moved with the liveliest sympathy. But it is another strain which meets us in this chapter, and one which to a Jew would certainly neutralize the favorable feelings which prophecies like that referred to must have awakened. Here Jeremiah announces that the last moment of grace for Judah is past, and the time for judgment come. The long-suffering of Jehovah has been exhausted; the fall of the commonwealth cannot any longer be delayed. Such was the strange destiny of the prophet; he was sent to "pull down" and "to build," but the destructive element (as...

AND IT SHALL BE, IF THEY REFUSE TO TAKE THE CUP AT THINE HAND TO DRINK,.... To give credit to the prophecies of ruin and destruction delivered by the prophet, but say, these things shall not be: THEN SHALT THOU SAY UNTO THEM, THUS SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS, YE SHALL CERTAINLY DRINK; or those judgments shall certainly be inflicted; there will be no possibility of escaping, whether they were believed or not; or how unwilling soever they were to believe the denunciations of them, or to have them come upon them; yet assuredly so it would be; for thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is omnipotent, and does what he pleases in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, over whom he has a despotic power and government,...

CHAPTER 25 The Seventy Years' Captivity and the Judgment of the Nations _ 1. The retrospect (Jeremiah 25:1) _ 2. The seventy years' captivity announced (Jeremiah 25:8) 3. The punishment of Babylon and its king (Jeremiah 25:12) 4. The wine-cup of fury for the nations (Jeremiah 25:15) 5. The day of the LORD and wrath of God (Jeremiah 25:30) Jeremiah 25:1. The prophet in the fourth year o

JEREMIAH 25. THE SUPREMACY OF BABYLON OVER JUDAH AND THE NATIONS. Jeremiah 25:1. In the year 604 (after the Babylonian victory over Egypt at Carchemish, 605 B.C., _cf._ Jeremiah 46:2), Jeremiah publicly reviews his ministry (since 626; _cf._ Jeremiah 1:2)_._ which has failed to produce repentance (Jeremiah 25:1). As a result, Yahweh will bring the victorious Babylonians against both Judah and the surrounding peoples to lay them waste, and the supremacy of Babylon shall last seventy years. Jeremiah 25:10. the so

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 Jeremiah 25:15, but brackets Jeremiah 25:20 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. ...

IF THEY REFUSE TO TAKE THE CUP— "If they either do not believe thy threatenings, or disregard them, because they think themselves sufficiently provided against any hostile invasion, thou shalt let them know that the judgments denounced are irreversible....

C. Judgment on Surrounding Nations Jeremiah 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