Jeremiah 25:17

So I took the cup from the LORD’s hand and made all the nations drink from it, each one to whom the LORD had sent me,

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — Jeremiah speaks as Yahweh’s appointed prophet to Judah’s leadership and people during a period of impending national collapse. He describes receiving a symbolic cup from God and distributing it to every nation he was commissioned to address.

The words — The Hebrew כּוֹס (kos) literally means "cup," denoting the vessel of judgment, and אַשְׁקֶה (ashkeh) means "I made drink," indicating forced consumption. These terms establish the catastrophe as an assigned portion rather than a random event.

The thread — The cup motif recurs in Jeremiah 25:28, which addresses refusal to drink, and aligns with the commission in Jeremiah 1:10 to uproot and tear down nations. The distribution to foreign rulers also parallels the diplomatic warnings recorded in Jeremiah 27:3.

Why it lands — The verse requires acknowledgment that human kingdoms operate under divine oversight and that prophetic warning carries inevitable execution. It demands acceptance that judgment is a measured response to rebellion, not an arbitrary punishment.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

וָאֶקַּ֥חva./'e.Kachand/ I took אֶת־'et-<obj.>הַכּ֖וֹסha./Kosthe/ cup מִיַּ֣דmi./Yadfrom/ [the] hand of יְהוָ֑הYah.wehYahweh וָֽאַשְׁקֶה֙va./'ash.Kehand/ I made drink אֶת־'et-<obj.>כָּל־kol-all הַגּוֹיִ֔םha./go.Yimthe/ nations אֲשֶׁר־'a.Sher-which שְׁלָחַ֥נִיshe.la.Cha./nihe sent/ me יְהוָ֖הYah.wehYahweh אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃'a.lei./Hemto/ them

King James Version

Then took I the cup at the Lord’s hand, and made all the nations to drink, unto whom the Lord had sent me:

Cross-references

Jeremiah 1:10 See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and plant.”
Jeremiah 25:28 If they refuse to take the cup from your hand and drink it, you are to tell them that this is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘You most certainly must drink it!
Jeremiah 27:3 Send word to the kings of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Tyre, and Sidon through the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to Zedekiah king of Judah.
Jeremiah 46:1 This is the word of the LORD about the nations—the word that came to Jeremiah the prophet
Ezekiel 43:3 The vision I saw was like the vision I had seen when He came to destroy the city and like the visions I had seen by the River Kebar. I fell facedown,