Jeremiah 48:26

48:26 “Moab has vaunted itself against me.

So make him drunk with the wine of my wrath ¹ 

until he splashes ²  around in his own vomit,

until others treat him as a laughingstock.

Jeremiah 51:7

51:7 Babylonia had been a gold cup in the Lord’s hand.

She had made the whole world drunk.

The nations had drunk from the wine of her wrath. ³ 

So they have all gone mad. ⁴ 

Jeremiah 51:39

51:39 When their appetites are all stirred up, ⁵ 

I will set out a banquet for them.

I will make them drunk

so that they will pass out, ⁶ 

they will fall asleep forever,

they will never wake up,” ⁷ 

says the Lord. ⁸ 

Jeremiah 51:57

51:57 “I will make her officials and wise men drunk,

along with her governors, leaders, ⁹  and warriors.

They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ¹⁰ 

says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ¹¹ 

Jeremiah 25:27

25:27 Then the Lord said to me, ¹²  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹³  says, ¹⁴  ‘Drink this cup ¹⁵  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ¹⁶  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ¹⁷ 

[48:26]  ¹ tn Heb “Make him drunk because he has magnified himself against the Lord.” The first person has again been adopted for consistency within a speech of the Lord. Almost all of the commentaries relate the figure of drunkenness to the figure of drinking the cup of God’s wrath spelled out in Jer 25 where reference is made at one point to the nations drinking, staggering, vomiting, and falling (25:27 and see G. L. Keown, P. J. Scalise, T. G. Smothers, Jeremiah 26-52 [WBC], 316, for a full list of references to this figure including this passage and 49:12-13; 51:6-10, 39, 57).

[48:26]  ² 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.

[51:7]  ³ tn The words “of her wrath” are not in the Hebrew text but are supplied in the translation to help those readers who are not familiar with the figure of the “cup of the Lord’s wrath.”

[51:7]  ⁴ tn Heb “upon the grounds of such conditions the nations have gone mad.”

[51:39]  ⁵ tn Heb “When they are hot.”

[51:39]  ⁶ tc The translation follows the suggestion of KBL 707 s.v. עָלַז and a number of modern commentaries (e.g., Bright, J. A. Thompson, and W. L. Holladay) in reading יְעֻלְּפוּ (ye’ullÿfu) for יַעֲלֹזוּ (ya’alozu) in the sense of “swoon away” or “grow faint” (see KBL 710 s.v. עָלַף Pual). That appears to be the verb that the LXX (the Greek version) was reading when they translated καρωθῶσιν (karwqwsin, “they will be stupefied”). For parallel usage KBL cites Isa 51:20. This fits the context much better than “they will exult” in the Hebrew text.

[51:39]  ⁷ sn The central figure here is the figure of the cup of the Lord’s wrath (cf. 25:15-29, especially v. 26). Here the Babylonians have been made to drink so deeply of it that they fall into a drunken sleep from which they will never wake up (i.e., they die, death being compared to sleep [cf. Ps 13:3 (13:4 HT); 76:5 (76:6 HT); 90:5]). Compare the usage in Jer 51:57 for this same figure.

[51:39]  ⁸ tn Heb “Oracle of the Lord.”

[51:57]  ⁷ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

[51:57]  ⁸ sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

[51:57]  ⁹ tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.

[25:27]  ⁹ tn The words “Then the Lord said to me” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity, to connect this part of the narrative with vv. 15, 17 after the long intervening list of nations who were to drink the cup of God’s wrath in judgment.

[25:27]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[25:27]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord….’” The translation is intended to eliminate one level of imbedded quotation marks to help avoid confusion.

[25:27]  ¹² 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.

[25:27]  ¹³ 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.

[25:27]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.