They shall drink, and reel back and forth, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.”
Parallel translations
- KJV And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
- BSB And they will drink and stagger and go out of their minds, because of the sword that I will send among them.”
- NKJV And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them.”
- NASB Then they will drink and loudly vomit and act insanely because of the sword that I am going to send among them.”
- NLT When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The nations will drink, stagger, and go mad because of the sword God sends among them. The cup brings disorienting, terrifying judgment.
Overview
Drinking the cup of wrath leaves the nations reeling like drunken men, undone by the violence God brings. The imagery conveys the overwhelming and destabilizing nature of divine judgment. It depicts the helplessness of all who stand under God's righteous anger apart from mercy.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Jer 51:7Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunk. The nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations have gone mad.
- Nah 3:11You also will be drunken. You will be hidden. You also will seek a stronghold because of the enemy.
- Lam 4:21Rejoice and be glad, daughter of Edom, that dwell in the land of Uz: The cup shall pass through to you also; you shall be drunken, and shall make yourself naked.
- Ezek 23:32–34“Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘You will drink of your sister’s cup, which is deep and large. You will be ridiculed and held in derision. It contains much.
- Jer 51:39When they are heated, I will make their feast, and I will make them drunk, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake up,” says Yahweh.
- Rev 18:3For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality, the kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from the abundance of her luxury.”
- Rev 14:10he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is prepared unmixed in the cup of his anger. He will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb.
- Rev 16:9–11People were scorched with great heat, and people blasphemed the name of God who has the power over these plagues. They didn’t repent and give him glory.
- Jer 25:27“You shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Drink, and be drunk, vomit, fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.”’
- Lam 3:15He has filled me with bitterness. He has sated me with wormwood.
- Rev 14:8Another, a second angel, followed, saying, “Babylon the great has fallen, which has made all the nations to drink of the wine of the wrath of her sexual immorality.”
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Christ at the center
Against the failure of false shepherds Jeremiah promises the Righteous Branch, 'The LORD our righteousness,' and the new covenant written on the heart and sealed in the blood of Christ.
How Jeremiah 25:16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.