258 TRANSLATION, NOTES, AND COMMENTStaking et-kos hayyayin as a construct chain, with haf:iema and hazzo~t both
functioning as adjectives in the attributive position. Hebrew /:iema ("wrath") is
normally a noun; however, we may note that the LXX reads it as an adjective,
going its own way with to poterion tou oinou tau akratou toutou ("the cup of
this unmixed wine"). Aquila hastes orges ("of wrath"); Symm and Theod tou
thumou ("of passion"). Jerome in the Vg translates calicem vini furoris huius ("a
cup of this wrathful wine"). Some commentators (Cornill; Rudolph; Holladay;
Mc Kane) delete haf:iema as a gloss, which is too easy. The term occurs in
4QJer^0 • Weiser translates: "diesen Becher voll Zornwein,'' which is similar to
the translation adopted here. On wine and wine-making in antiquity, see Note
on 48:11-12.
This type of cup (kos) is a drinking vessel (Honeyman 1939: 82; Kelso 1948:
19-20 #43; cf. 16:7; 3 5: 5; 49: 12), usually made of clay but crafted or overlaid in
silver or gold for royal households (51:7; Rev 17:4). Kelso says the term can
also refer to a broad, shallow wine bowl. Either could be with or without han-
dles. According to Honeyman, these cups had no handles and were about
eight centimeters in diameter with a "lip" at the brim (1 Kgs 7:26). To "drink
the cup" frequently takes on symbolic significance extending well beyond the
act of drinking and may, in some cases, not include drinking at all. Drinking
the "cup of consolation" with mourners (16:7) is to share a cup of wine with
them, but more important it is to give them comfort. The "cup" symbolizes
blessing and salvation in Pss 16:5; 23:5; and 116: 13, but in the present case it
symbolizes the divine wrath, as it does often in the OT ( 49: 12; 51 :7; Hab 2: 16;
Lam 4:21; Ezek 23:31-34; Isa 51:17, 22; Pss 11:6; 75:9[Eng 75:8]) and in the
NT (Rev 14:10; 16:19; 18:6). In the Gospels, "the cup" signifies Jesus' entire
experience of suffering and death (Mark 14:36 and parallels).
from my hand. Jeremiah sees Yahweh stretching forth his hand to give him
the cup of death for the nations. When he received his call, Yahweh stretched
forth a hand to put words into the prophet's mouth ( 1 :9). Compare the anthro-
pomorphic imagery in Isa 6:6-7 and Ezek 2:9-10.
and make all the nations to whom I am sending you drink it. The people of
Judah underwent a similar forced drinking (13:12-14). Jeremiah, not just a
prophet to Judah, gives the cup of destiny to all the nations ( 1: 5, 10). Again we
see him acting in the capacity of a royal messenger in Yahweh's employ, this
time as the King's cupbearer. Note the verb slf:i, "to send" (cf. 1:7; 26:12, 15).
The images of the cupbearer and herald coalesce, for Jeremiah is not serving
the nations a literal cup of wine but, rather, delivering them a message of di-
vine judgment. In 5:14, Yahweh's words in the prophet's mouth will come to
Judah like a consuming fire; in 23:29 they are this and also like a rock-shatter-
ing hammer. Yahweh says in Hos 6:5: "Therefore I have hewn them by the
prophets, I have slain them by the words of my mouth." In the judgment here,
Yahweh's word spoken by Jeremiah is a potent, yes lethal, cup of wine. Jere-
miah himself became like a drunken man before Yahweh's holy words (23:9)
but, not being under a curse, he lived to preach another day. The nations are