Jeremiah 25:28 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Jeremiah 25:28
And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
to refuse · verb, piel imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
take
לָקַֽחַתla.ka.chat-
H3947
to take (in the widest variety of applications) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
cup
הַכּ֥וֹסha.Kos
H3563
a cup (as a container) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
hand
מִיָּדְךָ֖mi.ya.de.Kha
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person masculine singular
drink
לִשְׁתּ֑וֹתlish.Tot
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · preposition + verb, qal infinitive construct
say
וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ve.'a.mar.Ta
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential perfect, 2nd person masculine singular
saith
אָמַ֛ר'a.Mar
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD
יְהוָ֥הYah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · proper noun, a title
hosts
צְבָא֖וֹתtze.va.'ot
H6635
a mass of persons (or figuratively · noun, common feminine plural absolute
certainly
שָׁת֥וֹsha.To
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal infinitive absolute
drink
תִשְׁתּֽוּtish.Tu
H8354
to imbibe (literally or figuratively) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person masculine plural
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Job 34:33 Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou…
Isaiah 14:24-27 The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand:
Isaiah 46:10-11 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do…
Jeremiah 4:28 For this shall the earth mourn, and the heavens above be black: because I have spoken it, I have purposed it, and will not repent, neither w…
Jeremiah 49:12 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogeth…
Jeremiah 51:29 And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD shall be performed against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a desol…
Daniel 4:35 And all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabit…
Acts 4:28 For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Jeremiah 25:15-29
Under the similitude of a cup going round, which all the company must drink of, is here represented the universal desolation that was now coming upon that part of the world which Nebuchadrezzar, who just now began to reign and act, was to be the instrument of, and which should at length recoil upon his own country. The cup in the vision is to be a sword in the accomplishment of it: so it is explained, Jer 25:16. It is the sword that I will send among them, the sword of war, that should be irresistibly strong and implacably cruel.
I. As to the circumstances of this judgment, observe,
1. Whence this destroying sword should come - from the hand of God. It is the sword of the Lord (Jer 47:6), ba…
if they refuse to take the cup--No effort of theirs to escape destruction will avail.
John Gill on Jeremiah 25:28
And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink,.... To give credit to the prophecies of ruin and destruction delivered by the prophet, but say, these things shall not be:
then shalt thou say unto them, thus saith the Lord of hosts, ye shall certainly drink; or those judgments shall certainly be inflicted; there will be no possibility of escaping, whether they were believed or not; or how unwilling soever they were to believe the denunciations of them, or to have them come upon them; yet assuredly so it would be; for thus saith the Lord of hosts, who is omnipotent, and does what he pleases in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, over whom he h…
Jeremiah 25:28
28. And it shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at thine hand to drink, then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Ye shall certainly drink.
28. Et erit, si rennerint ad sumendum (hoc est, sumere) calicem e manu tua ad bibendum, tunc dices ad eos (copula enim debetg resolvi in adverbium temporis,) Sic dicit Jehova exercituum, Bibendo bibetis.
In this verse the Prophet intimates, that however refractory the nations might be, yet they could effect no good by their obstinacy, for willing or unwilling they would be constrained to drink of the cup. But in order to render the matter more striking, he introduces them as refusing; If they refuse to take the cu…
The Church Fathers
In the same way in which physicians apply remedies to the sick, in order that by careful treatment they may recover their health, God so deals toward those who have lapsed and fallen into sin, is proved by this, that the cup of God's fury is ordered, through the agency of the prophet Jeremiah, to be offered to all nations, that they may drink it, and be in a state of madness and vomit it forth. In doing which, God threatens them, saying that if anyone refuses to drink, he shall not be cleansed. By this certainly it is understood that the fury of God's vengeance is profitable for the purgation of souls.
(Verse 28.) And when they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You shall drink! For behold, in the city where my name has been invoked, I will begin to afflict, and you shall be as innocent ones, immune (or you shall be as clean ones, pure)? You shall not be immune (or you shall not be clean). He covertly shows, the command of God, that those who do not wish to do so willingly, will have to do so out of necessity, and shall hear: You shall drink! He says, whether you want it or not, the will of God must be fulfilled. For if the city of Jerusalem, in which the name of God was known, as the Prophet says: 'God is known in Judah; his name is great in Israel' (Psalm 76:1), drinks from the bitter cup of wrath, how much more will you, who worship idols in the name of God, not be pure!
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Captivity — (1.) Of Israel. The kingdom of the ten tribes was successively invaded by several Assyrian kings. Pul (q.v.) imposed a tribute on Menahem of a thousand talents of silver (2 Kings 15:19, 20; 1 Chr.…
Jeremiah, Book of — Consists of twenty-three separate and independent sections, arranged in five books. I. The introduction, ch. 1. II. Reproofs of the sins of the Jews, consisting of seven sections, (1.) ch. 2; (2.)…
Cup · .Of — .Of
Drunkenness · FIGURATIVE — FIGURATIVE
Nation · Chastised — Chastised
Sidonians, The · Predictions respecting: Partaking with the other nations of God’s judgments — Predictions respecting: Partaking with the other nations of God’s judgments
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
From Jer 25:27 onwards the commission from God (Jer 25:15.) is still more completely communicated to Jeremiah, so that the record of its fulfilment (Jer 25:17-26), together with the enumeration of the various peoples, is to be regarded as an explanatory parenthesis. These might the less unsuitably be inserted after Jer 25:16, inasmuch as what there is further of the divine command in Jer 25:27-29 is, if we examine its substance, little else than an enforcement of the command. The prophet is not merely to declare to them what is the meaning of this drinking of wrath (Hitz.), but is to tell them that they are to drink the cup of wrath to the bottom, so that they shall fall for drunkenness and…
These kingdoms had to drink from this cup of the Lord’s anger (see study note on 25:15). They would be unable to escape the disaster that would overwhelm them. Jerusalem experienced God’s judgment, and so would the surrounding nations.
Rashi on Jeremiah 25:27
and vomit Like a person who drinks too much, who vomits.
the sword the strife of war.
