Psalms 75:8-9

75:8 For the Lord holds in his hand a cup full

of foaming wine mixed with spices, ¹ 

and pours it out. ² 

Surely all the wicked of the earth

will slurp it up and drink it to its very last drop.” ³ 

75:9 As for me, I will continually tell what you have done; ⁴ 

I will sing praises to the God of Jacob!

Isaiah 49:25-26

49:25 Indeed,” says the Lord,

“captives will be taken from a warrior;

spoils will be rescued from a conqueror.

I will oppose your adversary

and I will rescue your children.

49:26 I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh;

they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ⁵ 

Then all humankind ⁶  will recognize that

I am the Lord, your deliverer,

your protector, ⁷  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ⁸ 

Isaiah 51:22-23

51:22 This is what your sovereign master, ⁹  the Lord your God, says:

“Look, I have removed from your hand

the cup of intoxicating wine, ¹⁰ 

the goblet full of my anger. ¹¹ 

You will no longer have to drink it.

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ¹² 

who said to you, ‘Lie down, so we can walk over you.’

You made your back like the ground,

and like the street for those who walked over you.”

Jeremiah 25:15-16

Judah and the Nations Will Experience God’s Wrath

25:15 So ¹³  the Lord, the God of Israel, spoke to me in a vision. ¹⁴  “Take this cup from my hand. It is filled with the wine of my wrath. ¹⁵  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 ¹⁶  and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” ¹⁷ 

Jeremiah 25:27-29

25:27 Then the Lord said to me, ¹⁸  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁹  says, ²⁰  ‘Drink this cup ²¹  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ²²  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ²³  25:28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, tell them that the Lord who rules over all says ²⁴  ‘You most certainly must drink it! ²⁵  25:29 For take note, I am already beginning to bring disaster on the city that I call my own. ²⁶  So how can you possibly avoid being punished? ²⁷  You will not go unpunished! For I am proclaiming war against all who live on the earth. I, the Lord who rules over all, ²⁸  affirm it!’ ²⁹ 

Jeremiah 49:12

49:12 For the Lord says, “If even those who did not deserve to drink from the cup of my wrath must drink from it, do you think you will go unpunished? You will not go unpunished, but must certainly drink from the cup of my wrath. ³⁰ 

Joel 3:17

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

3:17 You will be convinced ³¹  that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem ³²  will be holy –

conquering armies ³³  will no longer pass through it.

Joel 3:1

The Lord Plans to Judge the Nations

3:1 (4:1) ³⁴  For look! In those ³⁵  days and at that time

I will return the exiles ³⁶  to Judah and Jerusalem. ³⁷ 

Joel 1:17

1:17 The grains of seed ³⁸  have shriveled beneath their shovels. ³⁹ 

Storehouses have been decimated

and granaries have been torn down, for the grain has dried up.

[75:8]  ¹ tn Heb “for a cup [is] in the hand of the Lord, and wine foams, it is full of a spiced drink.” The noun מֶסֶךְ (mesekh) refers to a “mixture” of wine and spices.

[75:8]  ² tn Heb “and he pours out from this.”

[75:8]  ³ tn Heb “surely its dregs they slurp up and drink, all the wicked of the earth.”

[75:9]  ⁴ tn Heb “I will declare forever.” The object needs to be supplied; God’s just judgment is in view.

[49:26]  ⁵ sn Verse 26a depicts siege warfare and bloody defeat. The besieged enemy will be so starved they will their own flesh. The bloodstained bodies lying on the blood-soaked battle site will look as if they collapsed in drunkenness.

[49:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:26]  ⁸ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.

[51:22]  ⁹ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[51:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”

[51:22]  ¹¹ tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”

[51:23]  ¹² tn That is, to make them drink it.

[25:15]  ¹³ 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.

[25:15]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel, to me.” It is generally understood that the communication is visionary. God does not have a “hand” and the action of going to the nations and making them drink of the cup are scarcely literal. The words are supplied in the translation to show the figurative nature of this passage.

[25:15]  ¹⁵ 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 Lord will identify Babylon as the cup which makes the nations stagger. In v. 16 drinking from the cup will be identified with the sword (i.e., wars) that the Lord will send against the nations. Babylon is also to be identified as the sword (cf. Jer 51:20-23). What is being alluded to here in highly figurative language is the judgment that the Lord will wreak on the nations listed here through the Babylonians. The prophecy given here in symbolical form is thus an expansion of the one in vv. 9-11.

[25:16]  ¹⁶ 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).

[25:16]  ¹⁷ 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.

[25:27]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[25:27]  ²⁰ 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]  ²¹ 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]  ²² 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]  ²³ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.

[25:28]  ²⁴ tn Heb “Tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord…’” The translation is intended to eliminate one level of imbedded quote marks to help avoid confusion.

[25:28]  ²⁵ tn The translation attempts to reflect the emphatic construction of the infinitive absolute preceding the finite verb which is here an obligatory imperfect. (See Joüon 2:371-72 §113.m and 2:423 §123.h, and compare usage in Gen 15:13.)

[25:29]  ²⁶ tn Heb “which is called by my name.” See translator’s note on 7:10 for support.

[25:29]  ²⁷ tn This is an example of a question without the formal introductory particle following a conjunctive vav introducing an opposition. (See Joüon 2:609 §161.a.) It is also an example of the use of the infinitive before the finite verb in a rhetorical question involving doubt or denial. (See Joüon 2:422-23 §123.f, and compare usage in Gen 37:8.)

[25:29]  ²⁸ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies.”

[25:29]  ²⁹ tn Heb “Oracle of Yahweh of armies.”

[49:12]  ³⁰ tn The words “of my wrath” after “cup” in the first line and “from the cup of my wrath” in the last line are not in the text but are implicit in the metaphor. They have been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:17]  ³¹ tn Heb “know.”

[3:17]  ³² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:17]  ³³ tn Heb “strangers” or “foreigners.” In context, this refers to invasions by conquering armies.

[3:1]  ³⁴ sn Joel 3:1 in the English Bible is 4:1 in the Hebrew text (BHS). See also the note at 2:28.

[3:1]  ³⁵ tc The MT and LXX read “in those days,” while MurXII reads “in that day.”

[3:1]  ³⁶ tc The Kethib reads אָשִׁיב (’ashiv, “return the captivity [captives]), while the Qere is אָשׁוּב (’ashuv, “restore the fortunes”). Many modern English versions follow the Qere reading. Either reading seems to fit the context. Joel refers to an exile of the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem in 3:2-6 and their return from exile in 3:7. On the other hand, 2:25-26 describes the reversal of judgment and restoration of the covenant blessings. However, the former seems to be the concern of the immediate context.

[3:1]  ³⁷ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[1:17]  ³⁸ tn Heb “seed.” The phrase “the grains of” does not appear in the Hebrew, but has been supplied in the translation for the sake of clarity and smoothness.

[1:17]  ³⁹ tc This line is textually uncertain. The MT reads “the seed shrivels in their shovels/clods.” One Qumran manuscript (4QXXII^c) reads “the heifers decay in [their] s[talls].” LXX reads “the heifers leap in their stalls.”