For thus hath Jehovah the God of Israel said unto me Take the cup of the wine of this fury at my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send thee to drink it.
God hands Jeremiah a cup of His own wrath and sends him from nation to nation — and the first to drink are Jerusalem and Judah. Why do the people who bore His name drink first, and can any nation refuse the cup?
Up to this point the prophet's message has centred on his own people. Here the frame opens out.
Jeremiah 25 begins the judgment of the nations, or rather the judgment which extends over all the earth. He gives the cup to drink to all nations (v. 15).
The chapter opens by fixing the date, and that date links two thrones:
The fourth year of Israel's king, Jehoiakim, matches the first year of the Gentiles' king, Nebuchadnezzar. The Holy Spirit seems to stress its importance, for this book uses that date four times.
God sent Jeremiah to the nations — and his own people were counted among them.
God called Jeremiah at the very time He was about to bring in this great change, and He clearly appointed him a prophet to the nations. When the LORD put the cup of trembling into his hand (as shown in Jeremiah 25), it was to give the nations to drink. But who are these "nations"? The very first of them is Judah and Jerusalem. This proves, then, that God's judgment formally put even His chosen people down into the place where their own sins had already brought them.
God did not demote Israel out of nowhere. The sentence only confirmed what was already true of them.
It is only now that the sons of Israel are included with the nations. They had, as a people, forfeited their separate place to God. They had lost it morally, and now they lost it judicially. God never judges persons until their own consciences have first judged them. The Lord did not drive the first man out of Paradise until the man fled from His presence. Adam hid from God, and the sentence God passed afterwards was only the sentence his own conscience had already passed.
Being closest to God did not push Judah to the back of the line. It put them first — and once the cup starts there, it does not stop.
So it is a universal principle: in judgment God begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? He cannot pass by His proud enemies. So judgment falls first on the nations that had most to do with His people, and it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth. To limit this to what happened long ago is to make the prophetic word a matter of private interpretation. It forces into a narrow, short-lived space what is plainly and clearly unlimited in reach.
The trouble starts at the city that bears God's name and spreads outward:
Jeremiah has to make "all the nations" drink the cup of fury (v. 17); yes, "all the kingdoms of the world" (v. 26). But notice where it begins. This is the result of the breakdown at the centre, the city that is called by God's name (v. 29). World-wide effects followed. Beginning at His own dwelling, the cry reached "to the ends of the earth" (v. 31).
Later in the chapter God answers the obvious reaction: a nation pushing the cup away.
Jeremiah 25:28 presents the same subject. It is the end of all that we see around us: "And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!'"
Scripture holds out one other cup taken from God's hand — and one Man who drank it so that others would not have to.
He looked at the cup, prayed to be spared it, but said, I will drink it. Our eternal salvation hung upon His drinking that cup. If He did not bear that wrath and judgment, we must; and if He did not drink that cup, we must drink it... He has drained it to the very dregs. He has filled another cup — the cup of salvation — to the brim with love. He has put that cup to my lips, and I drink, and receive eternal life.
- The cup is God's. Jeremiah does not brew it or choose who drinks; he takes it from God's hand and carries it where he is sent.
- The cup starts at home. God begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house — so Judah heads the list of nations.
- The cup confirms. They had already lost their place; God's sentence only confirmed the verdict their own consciences had passed.
- The cup travels. Once it leaves God's hand it does not stop until every kingdom has drunk, and refusal is not an option offered.
- The cup was drained. At the cross One drank the wrath to the dregs and holds out a different cup — salvation — to all who will take it.
And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
God tells Jeremiah to hand a cup of wine to the nations. This verse says what happens when they drink it: they lose their balance, they lose their senses, and a sword stands behind it all. Two questions follow — who must drink, and is this only ancient history?
God pours this wine. His prophet carries it, and who drinks first is the surprise.
Then the prophet is told to hand the cup of vengeance to the guilty nations. But look — among them, and first of them all, stand Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with their kings and their princes!
Judah had been set apart from the other nations. One commentator shows how that place was lost:
It is only now that the sons of Israel are included with the nations. As a people they had forfeited their separate place before God. They had lost it morally, and now they lost it judicially. God never judges people until their own consciences have first judged them. The Lord did not drive Adam, the first man, out of Paradise until he fled from His presence. God only sentenced him afterwards to what his own conscience had already sentenced him. The same is always true of every soul.
Drunkenness runs right through Jeremiah as a figure. Commenting on the jars filled with wine earlier in the book, one writer describes the state it stands for:
The jars filled with wine stand for a stupid senselessness. Drunkenness would drown all clear and right thinking among the people and their princes... Critics may question this sign, because it appears to put the blame for their drunkenness on the Lord. But such criticism only exposes their own ignorance of God's ways and judgments. When men depart from Him in any way He gives them up to something else, and unless they repent their desires get a stronger hold on them.
So the madness is not only fear. It is a people given up to what they turned to instead of God.
This verse names the cause of the madness: a sword God sends. One commentator traces how far it reaches:
While the Lord judged Jerusalem in this way, should the other nations go unpunished? He answers, "You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 29). This prophecy is most remarkable. It predicts a world war. All nations shall drink and stagger and be crazed because of the sword. It includes all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth (verse 26).
A principle lies behind starting at Jerusalem, and it carries the judgment outward:
It is a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible for Him to pass by His proud enemies... To limit this to what happened long ago is to make the prophetic word a matter of private interpretation. It forces into a narrow, temporary space what is plainly and clearly of unlimited extent.
Later in the chapter God answers a refusal to take the cup at all.
Jeremiah 25:28 presents the same subject. It is the end of everything we see around us: "And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!'"
Scripture shows one more cup, and Christ drank it Himself.
He looked at the cup, shrank from it, but said, I will drink it. Our eternal salvation hung on His drinking that cup. If He did not bear that wrath and judgment, we must... Thank God, my Saviour has drained it for me. He has drained it to the very dregs. He has filled another cup — the cup of salvation — full to the brim with love. He has put that cup to my lips, and I drink, and receive eternal life.
- Cup. God Himself pours this wine; Jeremiah only carries it to the nations.
- First. The cup starts with Jerusalem. Judgment begins with what bears God's name, and it cannot then skip His enemies.
- Madness. The staggering shows minds that have lost all clear thinking. When men leave God, He gives them up to what they chose.
- Sword. Behind the drinking stands a sword God summons against all the inhabitants of the earth — every kingdom on its face.
- Choice. No nation may hand this cup back. But Christ drained one cup to the dregs, and holds out another — the cup of salvation.
And I took the cup at Jehovah's hand, and made all the nations to drink, to whom Jehovah had sent me
God serves His sentence on the nations as a cup, and Jeremiah is the one who carries it round. The question the chapter forces is who is on the list, and how far down it God intends to go.
Chapter 25 is the turning point of the book. Up to here the book proves the people guilty. Now the sentence comes, and its wording sweeps Judah in with everyone else.
First, in Jeremiah, the chapters up to 24 keep proving the sin of Israel, and especially of Judah. Chapter 25 brings the judgment. It goes back over the testimony, and shows immediate judgment also on Babylon, which stands for all the nations… But this definitely puts Judah and Jerusalem under the same undistinguished, common name as the nations — "judgment beginning in the house of God."
Jeremiah does more than announce the judgment. He takes the cup and passes it round. The shock of the verse is the first name on the list.
Then the prophet is told to hand the cup of vengeance to the guilty nations. But look — among these, and as the first of them, stand Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and their kings and princes!
Why does God count His own people among the nations? The answer lies in what they had become, and in the work He gave Jeremiah.
If the Jews did not rise morally above the nations God had separated them from, why should He go on treating them as His own people by a special title? If they gave up all that made them different by falling into the idol worship of the nations, God would not support such false claims. So, when the Lord holds the cup of vengeance (Jer. 25) to give to the nations in His judgment, the Jews come first among the nations. They come not for blessing, but for chastening and punishment. So Jeremiah was ordained a prophet to the nations. The distinctive feature of his prophecy is this: Jerusalem comes first for judgment when God takes up the world to deal with its sins.
Special privileges do not move Judah to the back of the line. They move Judah to the front.
Now divine judgment is coming on the nations around Palestine. Jerusalem and Judah stand among the very first of the nations to be judged. They all are corrupt, thoroughly corrupt. It is pointless to look for differences of guilt among them. In fact, the special privileges of Judah only result in Judah coming first into the judgment. God judges Jerusalem at the beginning of the seventy years, and Babylon at the end of the period. The difference is only one of time. He judges them all in the end.
If God starts with the place that carries His own name, no one further out escapes. The words themselves reach far past ancient history.
It is therefore a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible for Him to pass by His arrogant enemies. So the judgment falls first on the nations which had most to do with His people. But it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth. To restrict this to what was done long ago is to make the prophetic word a matter of private interpretation. It forces into a narrow, temporary space what is plainly and expressly of unlimited extent.
The cup of vengeance is not the last cup in the Bible. Christ faced one too, and what He did with it decides who else must drink.
He looked at the cup, shrank from it, but said, I will drink it. Our eternal salvation hung on His drinking that cup. If He did not bear that wrath and judgment, we must. If He did not drink that cup, we must drink it… Thank God, my Saviour has drained it for me. He has drained it to the very dregs. He has filled another cup — the cup of salvation — to the brim with love. He has put that cup to my lips, and I drink, and receive eternal life.
- Cup handed over. Jeremiah is not a spectator. He takes the cup from God's hand and serves it. The sentence arrives by hand, not by rumour.
- Cup served first at home. Jerusalem and Judah head the list of nations. Privilege sets the order of judgment, not an exemption from it.
- Cup passed round. Judgment that starts at the house bearing God's name cannot stop short of His enemies. The list runs on to all the kingdoms of the earth.
- Cup not confined to history. Reading the chapter as spent and finished long ago shrinks words that are plainly unlimited in reach.
- Cup drained by another. Christ took the same cup of wrath, emptied it to the dregs, and held out the cup of salvation instead.
Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah, and the kings thereof, and the princes thereof, to make them a waste, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse, as it is this day;
Jeremiah pours out the cup of God's fury on the nations, and Jerusalem drinks first — with its own kings and officials. Why does the city that carried God's name drink before the pagan nations around it?
The shock of the verse is its placement. The prophet is sent to the guilty nations, and then we are told who stands at the front of the queue.
The prophet is then told to hand the cup of vengeance to the guilty nations; but look — among them, and as the first of them, stand Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, and their kings and their princes!
Being counted among the nations was itself part of the punishment. Judah had been a people set apart. Now she stands in the same list as the pagan nations around her, as if she had never known God.
Israel lost its religious relationship with the Lord, and the picture of a national castaway fits that loss well. So when God told Jeremiah to carry the cup of His wrath to all the Gentile nations, the one heading the list is Judah. By her sinful backsliding she had forfeited the special favour of God. In His righteous government of the earth He treated her as one of the peoples who did not know Him (Jer. 25:15-18). Later, in Daniel's day, pagan rulers were reigning in Jerusalem, where once the house of David held sway.
This order is not an accident of history.
So there is a universal principle here. In judgment God begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible for Him to pass by His proud enemies. So the judgment takes in, first, the nations that had most to do with His people, and it does not stop until He includes all the kings, kingdoms and inhabitants of the earth.
The sentence in this verse did not create the ruin. Judah's own conscience had reached the verdict first.
It is only now that the sons of Israel are included with the nations. As a people they had forfeited their separate place with God. They had lost it morally, and now they lost it judicially. God never judges people until their own consciences have first judged them. The Lord did not drive the first man out of Paradise until the man fled from His presence. Adam fled to hide himself from God. Only afterwards did God sentence him to what his own conscience had already sentenced him. The same is always true of every soul.
The words describing Jerusalem's end were not vague threats.
They had not only abandoned and forgotten the Lord, though still using His holy name; they had become idolatrous. The Lord pleaded with them tenderly, but they would not listen. Jeremiah 34 shows their condition. The princes and the people make a covenant and break it soon afterwards. Jerusalem, therefore, the princes and the people, would become "a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse." And His word was carried out with startling exactness.
(Vine quoted an older translation. The ESV reads "a desolation and a waste, a hissing and a curse.")
Jerusalem drinking first does not mean the nations escape. Their turn comes later in the same cup.
Divine judgment is now coming on the nations around Palestine. Jerusalem and Judah are among the very first He judges. They are all corrupt, thoroughly corrupt. It is pointless to look for differences of guilt among them. In fact, Judah's special privileges only result in Judah coming first into the judgment. God judges Jerusalem at the beginning of the seventy years and Babylon at the end of that period. The difference is only one of time; all are judged in the end.
The chapter's own reach runs wider than the past:
The chapter looks on from God's past dealings with Jerusalem, its neighbours and its Babylonian foes. It reaches to the universal judgment of the inhabited earth at the end of the age.
- First, not favoured. The cup of God's fury goes to all the nations. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah drink before Babylon does.
- First, because privileged. Judah's special standing did not shield her. It put her at the front, and God treated her like a people who never knew Him.
- First, because His name is there. God begins judgment with what bears His name: His people, His city, His house. Having begun there, He will not pass over His enemies.
- First, but not at random. The ruin was moral before it was judicial. God sentences only what conscience has already sentenced, as with Adam hiding in the garden.
- First, not last. Jerusalem drinks at the start of the seventy years, Babylon at the end. The difference is only timing. The chapter reaches on to the judgment of the whole earth.
Pharaoh king of Egypt, and his servants, and his princes, and all his people;
The prophecy hands a cup to nation after nation, and Egypt is near the front of the list. The cup reaches Pharaoh, his court, and all his people — so why is the world's great power named so early?
In this chapter Jerusalem drinks first, and Egypt is named right after. One commentator sees a settled rule in that order, and also the reason the list cannot stop with Judah:
It is a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible to pass by His arrogant enemies. So a judgment follows. It falls first on the nations which had most to do with His people, but it does not cease until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth. To limit this to what was fulfilled long ago is to make the prophetic word a private interpretation. It forces into a narrow, temporary space what is plainly and expressly of unlimited extent.
The date given at the start of the chapter is not decoration. It marks the year Egypt lost its place as the leading world power:
The prophet, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, addresses the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The fourth year of Jehoiakim was also the first year of Nebuchadnezzar. In this eventful year the battle of Carchemish took place, and Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt. Babylon now held supreme power.
Judah kept looking to Egypt for help. In a later chapter Pharaoh's army marches out for Judah and then goes home, and one commentator draws the lesson:
Human help is useless against the word of God. This was not the first time Egypt had proved a broken reed, piercing the hand of those who leaned on it. Pharaoh's army went home without striking a blow for Judah. That only delayed the siege by the Chaldeans, who soon came up again to destroy the city with fire.
Another writer counts how often the book names Pharaoh:
Pharaoh, on whom Israel was in constant danger of relying, is mentioned eleven times.
The verse names a king, his servants, his officials, and then all his people. The same chapter asks whether any nation escapes, and answers itself:
While the Lord judged Jerusalem in this way, should the other nations go unpunished? And He answers, "You shall not go unpunished, for I will summon a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, declares the LORD of hosts" (verse 29). All nations shall drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword. It includes all the kingdoms of the world which are on the face of the earth (verse 26).
A little further on, the chapter imagines someone pushing the cup away. The answer leaves no room:
Jeremiah 25:28 presents the same subject. It is the end of all that we see around us: "And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them, 'Thus says the LORD of hosts: You must drink!'"
Scripture uses this picture of a cup in many places, and one writer gathers them — then points to the one Man who took a different one:
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are different titles for the same cup. That cup is the emblem of divine judgments, like the bowls of Revelation 16. The cup of salvation, on the other hand, expresses the joy of the kingdom. A striking and beautiful point is that the cup drunk here by the people of the earth does not pass on to Messiah. He takes the other cup instead. The cup of anger is for their hand, the cup of salvation for His. He once took the cup of sorrows, the cup of Gethsemane, for us poor sinners. But what remains for Him now is the cup of praise, the joy of the kingdom.
- Cup handed out. God's judgment starts with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. Once it starts there, He cannot pass by His arrogant enemies.
- Cup dated. In the very year this word came, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Egypt at Carchemish. Pharaoh's name on the list was not a guess about the future. It was a verdict already in motion.
- Cup for the crutch. Egypt was the help Judah kept reaching for, and it kept breaking — a reed that pierces the hand of whoever leans on it.
- Cup universal. King, servants, officials, and people drink together. God summons a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, taking in every kingdom on its face.
- Cup exchanged. Anyone who refuses the cup hears, "You must drink!" Yet Christ took the cup of Gethsemane for sinners. What remains for Him now is the cup of praise.
and all the mingled people, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gazah, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;
Jeremiah is sending the Lord's cup of wrath round the nations. Verse 20 names Judah's neighbours to the south and west — mixed tribes, the kings of Uz, and four Philistine cities — and raises the question of why a judgment aimed at Jerusalem sweeps in such small powers.
The order of the list carries the point. Jerusalem and the cities of Judah drink first. If God's own people must drink, no one else can claim exemption.
It is a universal principle that God in judgment begins with what bears His name — His people, His city, His house. And if He begins there, where can He stop? It is impossible to pass by His haughty enemies. So a judgment follows: first of the nations which had most to do with His people. But it does not stop until He takes in all the kings, kingdoms, and inhabitants of the earth.
The picture is not random. A cup handed round a table was how a host showed his estimate of each guest.
The cup is a symbol of adjudication: the ruler of the feast sent the cup to whom, and in what order, and with what contents he judged best. That is why Psalm 75:7-8 says, "But it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another; for in the hand of the LORD there is a cup."
Uz is the one place in the list that was not Philistine.
The land of Uz was east of Palestine and probably part of Idumea, or close to the land of Edom. Lamentations 4:21 seems to confirm this: "Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, you who dwell in the land of Uz." It must have been on the borderland of Edom, if it was not part of it.
The four cities named were Philistine. These people had lived on Israel's doorstep from the beginning.
When Israel took possession of Palestine at God's command under Joshua, Philistia was not subdued (see Joshua 14:2). It was a strip of land about forty miles long and ten to twenty broad, lying between Joppa and Gaza on the sea coast, west of the tribes of Dan and Simeon. Because Israel failed here, the Philistines were always thorns in their sides, and sometimes their masters... These four nations joined together against God's chosen people, so now they are marked out as special objects of divine vengeance — for if you touch God's people, you touch Him.
The verse names not Ashdod but the remnant of Ashdod — only the leftovers of it. Leftovers like this are exactly what God takes note of.
It is worth noticing that in the coming day, Jehovah will deal with smaller powers as well as the greatest. He will deal with each one according to how it behaved toward Israel... It is useless to argue that they are now unknown, or to assume that they are extinct. Whatever may have happened in the past, these chapters look on to the future. He will bring Israel forward before the whole world, distinct from Judah. And He will not fail to single out the long-hidden remnants of their neighbours for His repayment at the end of the age.
Part of this chapter came true in Jeremiah's own day. Its wording, though, reaches much further.
These prophecies came true in some measure when Nebuchadnezzar was judged. But the chapter speaks in such wide and general terms that God has the end of the age in full view. That is the great time when all prophecy will be accomplished.
Scripture holds out two cups, and they do not fall to the same hand.
The wine cup, the cup of trembling, the cup of His fury, the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath — these are different titles for the same cup. That cup is the emblem of divine judgments... And this Psalm has a striking and beautiful point. The cup drunk here by the people of the earth does not pass on to Messiah. He takes the other cup instead... The cup of anger is for their hand, the cup of salvation for His. He once did take the cup of sorrows, the cup of Gethsemane, for us poor sinners.
- Cup. The image is a verdict, not an accident — the host decides who drinks, in what order, and how much.
- First. God begins with what bears His name, so Jerusalem drinks before Ashkelon ever does.
- Then. He will not pass by the nations that troubled His people — Uz on Edom's border, the Philistine cities on Israel's coast.
- All. God names small powers and surviving remnants as surely as empires. Being forgotten is no protection.
- One exception. Every nation on the list drinks. Christ alone took another cup — the cup of sorrows, and He took it for us.