Psalms 75:8

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 

Isaiah 49:26

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

they will get drunk on their own blood, as if it were wine. ⁴ 

Then all humankind ⁵  will recognize that

I am the Lord, your deliverer,

your protector, ⁶  the powerful ruler of Jacob.” ⁷ 

Isaiah 51:21-23

51:21 So listen to this, oppressed one,

who is drunk, but not from wine!

51:22 This is what your sovereign master, ⁸  the Lord your God, says:

“Look, I have removed from your hand

the cup of intoxicating wine, ⁹ 

the goblet full of my anger. ¹⁰ 

You will no longer have to drink it.

51:23 I will put it into the hand of your tormentors ¹¹ 

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 25:26-27

25:26 all the kings of the north, whether near or far from one another; and all the other kingdoms which are on the face of the earth. After all of them have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath, ¹²  the king of Babylon ¹³  must drink it.

25:27 Then the Lord said to me, ¹⁴  “Tell them that the Lord God of Israel who rules over all ¹⁵  says, ¹⁶  ‘Drink this cup ¹⁷  until you get drunk and vomit. Drink until you fall down and can’t get up. ¹⁸  For I will send wars sweeping through you.’ ¹⁹ 

Jeremiah 51:57

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

along with her governors, leaders, ²⁰  and warriors.

They will fall asleep forever and never wake up,” ²¹ 

says the King whose name is the Lord who rules over all. ²² 

Revelation 18:6

18:6 Repay her the same way she repaid others; ²³  pay her back double ²⁴  corresponding to her deeds. In the cup she mixed, mix double the amount for her.

[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.”

[49:26]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “flesh” (so KJV, NASB).

[49:26]  ⁶ tn Heb “your redeemer.” See the note at 41:14.

[49:26]  ⁷ tn Heb “the powerful [one] of Jacob.” See 1:24.

[51:22]  ⁸ tn The Hebrew term translated “sovereign master” here is אֲדֹנָי (’adonay).

[51:22]  ⁹ tn Heb “the cup of [= that causes] staggering” (so ASV, NAB, NRSV); NASB “the cup of reeling.”

[51:22]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “the goblet of the cup of my anger.”

[51:23]  ¹¹ tn That is, to make them drink it.

[25:26]  ¹² tn The words “have drunk the wine of the Lord’s wrath” are not in the text. They are supplied in the translation for clarity at the end of the list to serve as a transition to the next sentence which does not directly mention the cup or the Lord’s wrath.

[25:26]  ¹³ tn Heb “the king of Sheshach.” “Sheshach” is a code name for Babylon formed on the principle of substituting the last letter of the alphabet for the first, the next to the last for the second, and so on. On this principle Hebrew שׁ (shin) is substituted for Hebrew ב (bet) and Hebrew כ (kaf) is substituted for Hebrew ל (lamed). On the same principle “Leb Kamai” in Jer 51:1 is a code name for Chasdim or Chaldeans which is Jeremiah’s term for the Babylonians. No explanation is given for why the code names are used. The name “Sheshach” for Babylon also occurs in Jer 51:41 where the term Babylon is found in parallelism with it.

[25:27]  ¹⁴ 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]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Yahweh of armies, the God of Israel.”

[25:27]  ¹⁶ 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]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ 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]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among you.” See the notes on 2:16 for explanation.

[51:57]  ²⁰ sn For discussion of the terms “governors” and “leaders” see the note at Jer 51:23.

[51:57]  ²¹ sn See the note at Jer 51:39.

[51:57]  ²² tn For the title “Yahweh of armies” see the study note on Jer 2:19.

[18:6]  ²³ tn The word “others” is not in the Greek text, but is implied. Direct objects were frequently omitted in Greek when clear from the context.

[18:6]  ²⁴ tn On this term BDAG 252 s.v. διπλόω states, “to double τὰ διπλᾶ pay back double Rv 18:6.”