18:3 For all the nations 7 have fallen 8 from
the wine of her immoral passion, 9
and the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her,
and the merchants of the earth have gotten rich from the power of her sensual behavior.” 10
21:20 Let his own eyes see his destruction; 11
let him drink of the anger of the Almighty.
11:6 May the Lord rain down 12 burning coals 13 and brimstone 14 on the wicked!
A whirlwind is what they deserve! 15
60:3 You have made your people experience hard times; 16
you have made us drink intoxicating wine. 17
75:8 For the Lord holds in his hand a cup full
of foaming wine mixed with spices, 18
and pours it out. 19
Surely all the wicked of the earth
will slurp it up and drink it to its very last drop.” 20
29:9 You will be shocked and amazed! 21
You are totally blind! 22
They are drunk, 23 but not because of wine;
they stagger, 24 but not because of beer.
51:17 Wake up! Wake up!
Get up, O Jerusalem!
You drank from the cup the Lord passed to you,
which was full of his anger! 25
You drained dry
the goblet full of intoxicating wine. 26
51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one,
who is drunk, but not from wine!
51:22 This is what your sovereign master, 27 the Lord your God, says:
“Look, I have removed from your hand
the cup of intoxicating wine, 28
the goblet full of my anger. 29
You will no longer have to drink it.
25:15 So 30 the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. 31 “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. 32 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 33 and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” 34
25:17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand. I made all the nations to whom he sent me drink the wine of his wrath. 35
25:27 Then the Lord said to me, 36 “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all 37 says, 38 ‘Drink this cup 39 until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. 40 For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ 41
51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,
along with her governors, leaders, 42 and warriors.
They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” 43
says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. 44
1 tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated because of differences between Greek and English style.
2 tn Or “of the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).
3 tn Grk “fell.”
4 tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “so” to indicate the implied result of Babylon’s misdeeds (see Rev 14:8).
5 tn Grk “the cup of the wine of the anger of the wrath of him.” The concatenation of four genitives has been rendered somewhat differently by various translations (see the note on the word “wrath”).
6 tn Following BDAG 461 s.v. θυμός 2, the combination of the genitives of θυμός (qumo") and ὀργή (orgh) in Rev 16:19 and 19:15 are taken to be a strengthening of the thought as in the OT and Qumran literature (Exod 32:12; Jer 32:37; Lam 2:3; CD 10:9). Thus in Rev 14:8 (to which the present passage alludes) and 18:3 there is irony: The wine of immoral behavior with which Babylon makes the nations drunk becomes the wine of God’s wrath for her.
7 tn Or “all the Gentiles” (the same Greek word may be translated “Gentiles” or “nations”).
8 tc ‡ Several
9 tn See the notes on the words “passion” in Rev 14:8 and “wrath” in 16:19.
10 tn According to BDAG 949 s.v. στρῆνος and στρηνιάω, these terms can refer either to luxury or sensuality. In the context of Rev 18, however (as L&N 88.254 indicate) the stress is on gratification of the senses by sexual immorality, so that meaning was emphasized in the translation here.
11 tc This word occurs only here. The word כִּיד (kid) was connected to Arabic kaid, “fraud, trickery,” or “warfare.” The word is emended by the commentators to other ideas, such as פִּיד (pid, “[his] calamity”). Dahood and others alter it to “cup”; Wright to “weapons.” A. F. L. Beeston argues for a meaning “condemnation” for the MT form, and so makes no change in the text (Mus 67 [1954]: 315-16). If the connection to Arabic “warfare” is sustained, or if such explanations of the existing MT can be sustained, then the text need not be emended. In any case, the sense of the line is clear.
12 tn The verb form is a jussive, indicating that the statement is imprecatory (“May the
13 tc The MT reads “traps, fire, and brimstone,” but the image of God raining traps, or snares, down from the sky is bizarre and does not fit the fire and storm imagery of this verse. The noun פַּחִים (pakhim, “traps, snares”) should be emended to פַּחֲמֵי (pakhamey, “coals of [fire]”). The rare noun פֶּחָם (pekham, “coal”) occurs in Prov 26:21 and Isa 44:12; 54:16.
14 sn The image of God “raining down” brimstone on the objects of his judgment also appears in Gen 19:24 and Ezek 38:22.
15 tn Heb “[may] a wind of rage [be] the portion of their cup.” The precise meaning of the rare noun זִלְעָפוֹת (zil’afot) is uncertain. It may mean “raging heat” (BDB 273 s.v. זַלְעָפָה) or simply “rage” (HALOT 272 s.v. זַלְעָפָה). If one understands the former sense, then one might translate “hot wind” (cf. NEB, NRSV). The present translation assumes the latter nuance, “a wind of rage” (the genitive is attributive) referring to a “whirlwind” symbolic of destructive judgment. In this mixed metaphor, judgment is also compared to an allotted portion of a beverage poured into one’s drinking cup (see Hab 2:15-16).
16 tn Heb “you have caused your people to see [what is] hard.”
17 tn Heb “wine of staggering,” that is, intoxicating wine that makes one stagger in drunkenness. Intoxicating wine is here an image of divine judgment that makes its victims stagger like drunkards. See Isa 51:17-23.
18 tn Heb “for a cup [is] in the hand of the
19 tn Heb “and he pours out from this.”
20 tn Heb “surely its dregs they slurp up and drink, all the wicked of the earth.”
21 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.
22 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.
23 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.
24 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.
25 tn Heb “[you] who have drunk from the hand of the Lord the cup of his anger.”
26 tn Heb “the goblet, the cup [that causes] staggering, you drank, you drained.”
27 tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).
28 tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”
29 tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”
30 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.
31 tn Heb “Thus said the
32 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
33 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).
34 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.
35 tn The words “the wine of his wrath” are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor (see vv. 15-16). They are supplied in the translation for clarity.
36 tn The words “Then the
37 tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”
38 tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the
39 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.
40 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.
41 tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.
42 sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.
43 sn See the note at Jer 51:39.
44 tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.