28:7 Even these men 1 stagger because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer –
priests and prophets stagger because of beer,
they are confused 2 because of wine,
they stumble around because of beer;
they stagger while seeing prophetic visions, 3
they totter while making legal decisions. 4
28:8 Indeed, all the tables are covered with vomit;
no place is untouched. 5
29:9 You will be shocked and amazed! 6
You are totally blind! 7
They are drunk, 8 but not because of wine;
they stagger, 9 but not because of beer.
12:25 They grope about in darkness 10 without light;
he makes them stagger 11 like drunkards.
25:15 So 12 the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. 13 “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. 14 Take it and make the nations to whom I send you drink it. 25:16 When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro 15 and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” 16
25:27 Then the Lord said to me, 17 “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all 18 says, 19 ‘Drink this cup 20 until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. 21 For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ 22
48:26 “Moab has vaunted itself against me.
So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath 23
until he splashes 24 around in his own vomit,
until others treat him as a laughingstock.
1 tn Heb “these.” The demonstrative pronoun anticipates “priests and prophets” two lines later.
2 tn According to HALOT 135 s.v. III בלע, the verb form is derived from בָּלַע (bala’, “confuse”), not the more common בָּלַע (“swallow”). See earlier notes at 3:12 and 9:16.
3 tn Heb “in the seeing.”
4 tn Heb “[in] giving a decision.”
5 tn Heb “vomit, without a place.” For the meaning of the phrase בְּלִי מָקוֹם (bÿli maqom, “without a place”), see HALOT 133 s.v. בְּלִי.
6 tn The form הִתְמַהְמְהוּ (hitmahmÿhu) is a Hitpalpel imperative from מָהַהּ (mahah, “hesitate”). If it is retained, one might translate “halt and be amazed.” The translation assumes an emendation to הִתַּמְּהוּ (hittammÿhu), a Hitpael imperative from תָּמַה (tamah, “be amazed”). In this case, the text, like Hab 1:5, combines the Hitpael and Qal imperatival forms of תָּמַה (tamah). A literal translation might be “Shock yourselves and be shocked!” The repetition of sound draws attention to the statement. The imperatives here have the force of an emphatic assertion. On this use of the imperative in Hebrew, see GKC 324 §110.c and IBHS 572 §34.4c.
7 tn Heb “Blind yourselves and be blind!” The Hitpalpel and Qal imperatival forms of שָׁעַע (sha’a’, “be blind”) are combined to draw attention to the statement. The imperatives have the force of an emphatic assertion.
8 tc Some prefer to emend the perfect form of the verb to an imperative (e.g., NAB, NCV, NRSV), since the people are addressed in the immediately preceding and following contexts.
9 tc Some prefer to emend the perfect form of the verb to an imperative (e.g., NAB, NCV, NRSV), since the people are addressed in the immediately preceding and following contexts.
10 tn The word is an adverbial accusative.
11 tn The verb is the same that was in v. 24, “He makes them [the leaders still] wander” (the Hiphil of תָּעָה, ta’ah). But in this passage some commentators emend the text to a Niphal of the verb and put it in the plural, to get the reading “they reel to and fro.” But even if the verse closes the chapter and there is no further need for a word of divine causation, the Hiphil sense works well here – causing people to wander like a drunken man would be the same as making them stagger.
12 tn This is an attempt to render the Hebrew particle כִּי (ki) which is probably being used in the sense that BDB 473-74 s.v. כִּי 3.c notes, i.e., the causal connection is somewhat loose, related here to the prophecies against the nations. “So” seems to be the most appropriate way to represent this.
13 tn Heb “Thus said the
14 sn “Drinking from the cup of wrath” is a common figure to represent being punished by God. Isaiah had used it earlier to refer to the punishment which Judah was to suffer and from which God would deliver her (Isa 51:17, 22) and Jeremiah’s contemporary Habakkuk uses it of Babylon “pouring out its wrath” on the nations and in turn being forced to drink the bitter cup herself (Hab 2:15-16). In Jer 51:7 the
15 tn There is some debate about the meaning of the verb here. Both BDB 172 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hithpo and KBL 191 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpol interpret this of the back and forth movement of staggering. HALOT 192 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpo interprets it as vomiting. The word is used elsewhere of the up and down movement of the mountains (2 Sam 22:8) and the up and down movement of the rolling waves of the Nile (Jer 46:7, 8). The fact that a different verb is used in v. 27 for vomiting would appear to argue against it referring to vomiting (contra W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:674; it is “they” that do this not their stomachs).
16 tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among them.” Here, as often elsewhere in Jeremiah, the sword is figurative for warfare which brings death. See, e.g., 15:2. The causal particle here is found in verbal locutions where it is the cause of emotional states or action. Hence there are really two “agents” which produce the effects of “staggering” and “acting insane,” the cup filled with God’s wrath and the sword. The sword is the “more literal” and the actual agent by which the first agent’s action is carried out.
17 tn The words “Then the
18 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”
19 tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the
20 tn The words “this cup” are not in the text but are implicit to the metaphor and the context. They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
21 tn Heb “Drink, and get drunk, and vomit and fall down and don’t get up.” The imperatives following drink are not parallel actions but consequent actions. For the use of the imperative plus the conjunctive “and” to indicate consequent action, even intention see GKC 324-25 §110.f and compare usage in 1 Kgs 22:12; Prov 3:3b-4a.
22 tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.
23 tn Heb “Make him drunk because he has magnified himself against the
24 tn The meaning of this word is uncertain. It is usually used of clapping the hands or the thigh in helpless anger or disgust. Hence J. Bright (Jeremiah [AB], 321) paraphrases “shall vomit helplessly.” HALOT 722 s.v. II סָפַק relates this to an Aramaic word and see a homonym meaning “vomit” or “spew out.” The translation is that of BDB 706 s.v. סָפַק Qal.3, “splash (fall with a splash),” from the same root that refers to slapping or clapping the thigh.