Jeremiah 25 – “The Cup of Wrath for Judah and the Nations”

drinking wine glass tastingHebrew-English Text

I. Summary

Yahweh’s prophets have been ignored. Babylon will be destroyed 70 years after Judah. Jeremiah gives the nations a drink from the cup of wrath, signifying their doom.

II. Photo

Jeremiah gives drink to the nations: “So I took the cup from the hand of the Lord and gave drink to all the nations to whom the Lord had sent me.” (v. 17)

III. Select Verses

3: From the thirteenth year of King Josiah son of Amon of Judah, to this day — these twenty-three years — the word of the LORD has come to me. I have spoken to you persistently, but you would not listen.

11b-14: And those nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. When the seventy years are over, I will punish the king of Babylon and that nation and the land of the Chaldeans for their sins — declares the LORD — and I will make it a desolation for all time. And I will bring upon that land all that I have decreed against it, all that is recorded in this book — that which Jeremiah prophesied against all the nations. For they too shall be enslaved by many nations and great kings; and I will requite them according to their acts and according to their conduct.

17-20: So I took the cup from the hand of the LORD and gave drink to all the nations to whom the LORD had sent me: Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, and its kings and officials, to make them a desolate ruin, an object of hissing and a curse — as is now the case; Pharaoh king of Egypt, his courtiers, his officials, and all his people;  all the mixed peoples; all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines — Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and what is left of Ashdod…

33: In that day, the earth shall be strewn with the slain of the LORD from one end to the other. They shall not be mourned, or gathered and buried; they shall become dung upon the face of the earth.

IV. Outline

1-2. Prophecy and date (4th year of Jehoiakim, 1st of Nebuchadnezzar)

3. For 23 years Jeremiah’s prophecies have been ignored

4-7. Other prophets, who condemned idols, have been ignored

8-10. Yahweh will send Nebuchadnezzar to devastate the land

11-12. After 70 years Babylon will be destroyed

13-14. Babylon will receive the punishments reserved for Israel

15-29. Symbolic act: the cup of wrath

    15-16. Yahweh shows Jeremiah a cup of wrath to give to the nations

    17. Symbolic act

    18. Judah

    19. Egypt

    20a. The land of Uz

    20b. The Phillistines

    21. Transjordan: Edom, Moab, Ammon

    22-23. The Arabian tribes

    24. Elam and Persia

    25-26. Other kings; Sheshach (Babylon?)

    27-29. The message Jeremiah must recite

30-31. Proclomation: thunderous Yahweh has a case against the nations

32-33. All men will die

34-38. Shepherd analogy: Yahweh will ravage the shepherds and their flocks

V. Comment

No comment today. Stay tuned.

VI. Works Used

(see “Commentaries” page)

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