And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them.
Parallel translations
- WEB They shall drink, and reel back and forth, 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 hath been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations are mad.
- Nah 3:11Thou also shalt be drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.
- Lam 4:21Rejoice and be glad, O daughter of Edom, that dwellest in the land of Uz; the cup also shall pass through unto thee: thou shalt be drunken, and shalt make thyself naked.
- Ezek 23:32–34Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou shalt drink of thy sister’s cup deep and large: thou shalt be laughed to scorn and had in derision; it containeth much.
- Jer 51:39In their heat I will make their feasts, and I will make them drunken, that they may rejoice, and sleep a perpetual sleep, and not wake, saith the LORD.
- Rev 18:3For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.
- Rev 14:10The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
- Rev 16:9–11And men were scorched with great heat, and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power over these plagues: and they repented not to give him glory.
- Jer 25:27Therefore thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Drink ye, and be drunken, and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you.
- Lam 3:15He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me drunken with wormwood.
- Rev 14:8And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
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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.