For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
Parallel Translations
-
For as you have drunk on my holy mountain, so will all the nations drink continually. Yes, they will drink, swallow down, and will be as though they had not been.
-
For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
-
For as ye have drunk upon My holy mountain, so shall all the nations drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and swallow down, and shall be as though they had not been.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Contradictions (1)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Cross-references (12)
Passages linked to Obadiah 1:16 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Joel 3:17 “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more.
- Jeremiah 49:12 For Yahweh says: “Behold, they to whom it didn’t pertain to drink of the cup will certainly drink; and are you he who will altogether go unpunished? You won’t go unpunished, but you will surely drink.
- Isaiah 51:22-23 Your Lord Yahweh, your God who pleads the cause of his people, says, “Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath. You will not drink it any more. I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;’ and you have laid your back as the ground, like a street to those who walk over.”
- Jeremiah 25:15-16 For Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to me: “Take this cup of the wine of wrath from my hand, and cause all the nations to whom I send you to drink it. They will drink, and reel back and forth, and be insane, because of the sword that I will send among them.”
- Psalms 75:8-9 For in Yahweh’s hand there is a cup, full of foaming wine mixed with spices. He pours it out. Indeed the wicked of the earth drink and drink it to its very dregs. But I will declare this forever: I will sing praises to the God of Jacob.
- Isaiah 8:9-10 Make an uproar, you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Listen, all you from far countries: dress for battle, and be shattered! Dress for battle, and be shattered! Take counsel together, and it will be brought to nothing; speak the word, and it will not stand, for God is with us.”
- Isaiah 29:7-8 The multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all who fight against her and her stronghold, and who distress her, will be like a dream, a vision of the night. It will be like when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he eats; but he awakes, and his hunger isn’t satisfied; or like when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he drinks; but he awakes, and behold, he is faint, and he is still thirsty. The multitude of all the nations that fight against Mount Zion will be like that.
- Isaiah 49:25-26 But Yahweh says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the plunder retrieved from the fierce, for I will contend with him who contends with you and I will save your children. I will feed those who oppress you with their own flesh; and they will be drunk on their own blood, as with sweet wine. Then all flesh shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
- Jeremiah 25:27-29 “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.” ’ It shall be, if they refuse to take the cup at your hand to drink, then you shall tell them, ‘Yahweh of Armies says: “You shall surely drink. For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You will not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Armies.” ’
- Habakkuk 1:9 All of them come for violence. Their hordes face the desert. He gathers prisoners like sand.
- 1 Peter 4:17 For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God?
- Isaiah 42:14 “I have been silent a long time. I have been quiet and restrained myself. Now I will cry out like a travailing woman. I will both gasp and pant.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (11 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain Here Obadiah proceeds farther and says, that God would…
Here Obadiah proceeds farther and says, that God would revenge the wrongs done to his Church. The declaration in the last verse was general, “Behold, on all the nations the day of Jehovah is nigh; as then thou hast done, God will repay thee:” but now he shows that this would be, because God purposed to defend his own servants, (clientes — clients;) and as they had been cruelly treated, he would become the avenger of their wrongs; As then ye have drunk on my holy mountain, etc. The Prophet, I have no doubt, taking a part for the whole, included in the word drink their triumphs and rejoicings. As then ye have rejoiced on my holy mountain, so also all the nations shall drink and continue their excess; they shall drink up, so that ye shall utterly perish. But the Prophet appears to me evidently to add here a proof of their avariciousness. He had shortly before accused the Idumeans of having taken away a part of the spoil, together with the foreign nations, when the miserable Jews were plundered. So also, he says now, Ye have drunk, in token of triumph and rejoicing.
Ye have then drunk wine on my holy mountain: now drink shall all the nations This latter drinking is to be taken in a sense different from the former. What then? Drink they shall, and drink up, that is, “They shall consume all your substance.” And he afterwards adds, And drink they shall continually; and they shall be as though they had not been, that is they shall not cease to eat and to drink until they shall consume whatever is among you. He then intimates that the Idumeans, who had enriched themselves with the spoils of their brethren, and who had also kept feastings in token of their joy on the holy mountain, would hereafter be the food of others, for all the nations would drink, and drink them up To drink then here is the same as to consume. It follows, (for I am under the necessity of finishing this prophecy today, and time, I hope, will allow me) —
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain The Edomites shall be utterly destroyed, and yet in…
The Edomites shall be utterly destroyed, and yet in despite of all the enemies I will reserve my Church and restore it.
That is, rejoiced and triumphed.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Oba 1:16 For as ye have drunk upon my…
Oba 1:16 For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, [so] shall all the heathen drink continually, yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down, and they shall be as though they had not been.
Ver. 16. For as ye have drunk upon mine holy mountain] As you, O Edomites, have rejoiced and revelled in the ruins of Zion, carousing and carolling in her calamity, so shall many nations, and you among, yea, above the rest (for your excessive perfidy and cruelty), drink deeply of the cup of God’s fury, which hath eternity to the bottom.
Read full note →
And they shall be as though they had not been] This clause makes against that other sense that some set upon the text, viz. The heathen shall drink, feast, and triumph over thee, O Edom, whom they have subdued; yea, they shall drink so stoutly that they shall swallow thee up, and all thy substance, leaving thee nothing, praeter coelum, et coenum, as that Roman prodigal boasted he had done to himself. Their exposition seemeth more probable who here begin the consolatory part of the prophecy, and make this verse an apostrophe to the afflicted Jews thus: Like as ye my people have drunk your part of the cup of affliction (an ordinary metaphor, not in Scripture only, as Eze 23:32 Jer 49:12 Mat 20:22, but also in heathen writers, in allusion perhaps to the cup of poison given at Athens to malefactors, or, as some think, to the manner of their feasts, whereat the symposiarch, or ruler of the feast, Joh 2:9, gave order what, and how much, every one should drink), so shall all the heathen drink, and that continually; yea, they shall not only sip of the top, that which is sweetest and clearest; but the dregs and sediments too, they shall both drink and swallow down; till such time as it hath wholly swallowed them up, so that they shall be as though they had not been. See, for confirmation of this sense, Jer 25:15; Jer 49:12, and pray for the ruin of Rome, so long since foretold by Sibylla: Tota eris in cineres, quasi nunquam Roma fuisses. The prophecy is fulfilled already in Edom; whose very name is lost, more than what the Scripture reporteth of them. The Chaldees cut off abundance of them, together with the Moabites, Ammonites, and other neighbouring nations. After that Judas Maccabeus, and his nephew Hircanus, slew a great sort of them; and then, lastly, the Romans and other princes rooted them utterly out. See Joseph. lib. i. Antiq. cap. 10; 1Ma 5:65 2Ma 10:16; 2Ma 10:32.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This, with some, is a confirmation of what is…
This, with some, is a confirmation of what is threatened against Edom, yet others make this verse the beginning of the consolatory sermon to Judah, and either suits well with the context.
As ye, O Edomites, or ye, O Jews.
Read full note →
Have drunk: if you interpret this drinking as feasting, revelling, and carousing, it is to be applied to the Edomites and others, who triumphed first by their arms, next in their cups, over conquered Judah.
Upon my holy mountain; either the whole land, or Jerusalem, or the temple, for all these are called by this name; and here these proud and insolent conquerors did drink confusion to the Jews.
All the heathen; the nations, enemies to Edom, shall on Mount Esau conquer first, and then triumph in their revelling feasts, and drink continually, till they have swallowed up Edom.
And they, Edomites,
shall be as though they had not been; shall by this means perish utterly, and their memory cease with them; so it suits with Eze 35:14,15, which see. Others refer the words to the Jews, thus: Ye have drunk the cup of astonishment in your land, and in Jerusalem, my holy mountain; so now ere long the nations which afflicted you shall drink of the cup of astonishment long, yea, drink the dregs of it, so that they shall perish, and be no more, when your day of dark affliction shall end in a day of light and salvation; and when other nations do this, Edom shall much more, because most deeply guilty above others’ see Jer 49:17,18,21,22.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain,…
For as ye have drunk upon my holy mountain, so shall all the Heathen drink continually,.... Which is either spoken to the Edomites; and the sense be, according to the Targum,
"as ye have rejoiced at the blow (given unto or at the subversion and destruction) of the mountain of my holiness, all people shall drink the cup of their vengeance;''
Read full note →
or punishment; and to the same sense Jarchi and Japhet interpret it; and so Kimchi,
"as ye have made a feast, rejoicing at the destruction of my holy mountain, so thou and all nations shall drink of the cup of trembling;''
but Aben Ezra thinks the words are spoken to the Israelites,
"as ye have drank the cup, so shall all nations;''
the cup of vengeance began with them, and so went round the nations, according to the prophecy in Jer 25:17, &c. for, if judgment begins at the house and people of God, it may be expected it will reach to others; wherefore Edom had no reason to rejoice at the destruction of the Jews, since they might be assured by that the same would be their case before long; and with this difference, that whereas the Jews only drank this cup for a while, during the seventy years' captivity, these nations, and the Edomites among the rest, should be "continually" drinking it:
yea, they shall drink, and they shall swallow down; not only drink of the cup, but drink it up; not only take it into their mouths, but swallow it down their throats; not only sip at it, but "sup it up" (a), as it may be rendered. The phrase denotes the fulness of their punishment, and their utter and entire ruin and destruction, which the next clause confirms:
and they shall be as though they had not been; as now are the Philistines, Moabites, Ammonites, and so the Edomites; their names are not heard of in the world, only as they are read in the Bible; and thus it shall be with mystical Babylon or Edom, it shall be thrown down, and found no more, Rev 18:21.
(a) "absorbebunt", V. L. Junius & Tremellius, Piscator; "deglutient", Montanus, Mercerus. Gussetius renders it "absorbebantur".
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain As ye - As ye, my own people, have…
As ye - As ye, my own people, have drunk deep of the cup of affliction, so shall other nations much more, yea, they shall drink of it, 'till they utterly perish.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 16. For as ye have drunk] This address…
Verse 16. For as ye have drunk] This address is to the Jews. As ye have been visited and punished upon my holy mountain in Jerusalem, so shall other nations be punished in their respective countries. See Jer 49:12.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For as ye have drunk - Revelry always followed…
For as ye have drunk - Revelry always followed pagan victory; often, desecration. The Romans bore in triumph the vessels of the second temple, Nebuchadnezzar carried away the sacred vessels of the first. Edom, in its hatred of God’s people, doubtless regarded the destruction of Jerusalem, as a victory of polytheism (the gods of the Babylonians, and their own god Coze), over God, as Hyrcanus, in his turn, required them, when conquered, to be circumcised. God’s “holy mountain is the hill of Zion,” including mount Moriah on which the temple stood. This they desecrated by idolatrous revelry, as, in contrast, it is said that, when the pagan enemy had been destroyed, “mount Zion” should “be holiness” Oba 1:17. Brutal, unfeeling, excess had been one of the sins on which Joel had declared God’s sentence Joe 3:3, “they cast lots on My people; they sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.”
Pagan tempers remain the same; under like circumstances, they repeat the same circle of sins, ambition, jealousy, cruelty, bloodshed, and, when their work is done, excess, ribaldry, profaneness. The completion of sin is the commencement of punishment. “As ye,” he says, pagan yourselves and “as one of” the pagan “have drunk” in profane revelry, on the day of your brother’s calamity, “upon My holy mountain,” defiling it, “so shall all the pagan drink” continually. But what draught? a draught which shall never cease, “continually; yea, they shall drink on, and shall swallow down,” a full, large, maddening draught, whereby they shall reel and perish, “and they shall be as though they had never been” . “For whoso cleaveth not to Him Who saith, I AM, is not.” The two cups of excess and of God’s wrath are not altogether distinct. They are joined, as cause and effect, as beginning and end.
Read full note →
Whoso drinketh the draught of sinful pleasure, whether excess or other, drinketh there with the cup of God’s anger, consuming him. It is said of the Babylon of the world, in words very like to these Rev 18:3, Rev 18:6; “All nations have drank of the wine of her fornications - reward her as she has rewarded you; in the cup which she hath filled, fill to her double.” “All nations” are in the first instance, all who had been leagued against God’s people; but the wide term, “all nations,” comprehends all, who, in thee, become like them. It is a rule of God’s justice for all times. At each and at all times, God requites them to the uttermost. The continuous drinking is filfilled in each. Each drinketh the cup of God’s anger, until death and in death. God employs each nation in turn to give that cup to the other. So Edom drank it at the hand of Babylon, and Babylon from the Medes, and the Medes find Persians from the Macedonians, and the Macedonians from the Romans, and they from the Barbarians. But each in turn drank continuously, until it became as though it had never been. To swallow up, and be swallowed up in turn, is the world’s history.
The details of the first stage of the excision of Edom are not given. Jeremiah distinctly says that Edom should be subjected to Nebuchadnezzar Jer 27:2-4, Jer 27:6. “Thus saith the Lord; make thee bonds and yokes, and put them upon thy neck, and send them to the king of Edom, and to the king of Moab, and to the king of the Ammonites, and to the king of Tyrus, and to the king of Zidon, by the hands of the messengers which come to Jerusalem unto Zedekiah king of Judah, and command them to say to their masters - I have given all these lands into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant.” Holy Scripture gives us both prophecy and history; but God is at no pains to clear, either the likelihood of His history, or the fulfillment of His prophecies. The sending of messengers from these petty kings to Zedekiah looks as if there had been, at that time, a plan to free themselves jointly, probably by aid of Egypt, from the tribute to Nebuchadnezzar. It may be that Nebuchadnezzar knew of this league, and punished it afterward.
Of these six kings, we know that he subdued Zedekiah, the kings of Tyre, Moab and Ammon. Zion doubtless submitted to him, as it had aforetime to Shalmaneser . But since Nebuchadnezzar certainly punished four out of these six kings, it is probable that they were punished for some common cause, in which Edom also was implicated. In any case, we know that Edom was desolated at that time. Malachi, after the captivity, when upbraiding Israel for his unthankfulness to God, bears witness that Edom had been made utterly desolate Mal 1:2-3. “I have loved Jacob, and Esau I have hated, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the jackals of the wilderness.” The occasion of this desolation was doubtless the march of Nebuchadnezzar against Egypt, when, Josephus relates, he subdued Moab and Ammon (Josephus, Ant. x. 9, 7). Edom lay in his way from Moab to Egypt. It is probable, anyhow, that he then found occasion (if he had it not) against the petty state, whose submission was needed to give him free passage between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba, the important access which Edom had refused to Israel, as he came out of Egypt. There Edom was “sent forth to its borders,” i. e., misled to abandon its strong fastnesses, and so, falling into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, it met with the usual lot of the conquered, plunder, death, captivity.
Malachi does not verbally allude to the prophecy of Obadiah, for his office related to the restored people of God, not to Edom. But whereas Obadiah had prophesied the slaughter of Edom and the searching out of his treasures, Malachi appeals to all the Jews, their immediate neighbors, that, whereas Jacob was in great degree restored through the love of God, Edom lay under His enduring displeasure; his mountains were, and were to continue to be Mal 1:4, a waste; he was “impoverished;” his places were desolate. Malachi, prophesying toward (See the introduction to Malachi) 415 b.c., foretold a further desolation. A century later, we find the Nabathaeans in tranquil and established possession of Petra, having there deposited the wealth of their merchandise, attending fairs at a distance, avenging themselves on the General of Antigonus, who took advantage of their absence to surprise their retreat, holding their own against the conqueror of Ptolemy who had recovered Syria and Palestine; in possession of all the mountains around them, from where, when Antigonus, despairing of violence, tried by falsehood to lull them into security, they transmitted to Petra by fiery beacons the tidings of the approach of his army .
How they came to replace Edom, we know not. They were of a race, wholly distinct; active friends of the Maccabees (See 1 Macc. 5:24-27; 9:35. Josephus, Ant. xii. 8, 3; xiii. 1. 2. Aretas of Petra aided the Romans 3, b.c. against Jews and Idumaeans. Ant. xvii. 10. 9), while the Idumaeans were their deadly enemies. Strabo relates , that the Edomites “were expelled from the country of the Nabathaeans in a sedition, and so joined themselves to the Jews and shared their customs.” Since the alleged incorporation among the Jews is true, although at a later period, so may also the expulsion by the Nabathaeans be, although not the cause of their incorporation.
It would be another instance of requital by God, that “the men” of their “confederacy brought” them “to” their “border, the men of” their “peace prevailed against” them.” A mass of very varied evidence establishes as an historical certainty, that the Nabathaeans were of Aramaic contends that the Nabathaeans of Petra were Arabs, on the following grounds:
(1) The statements of Diodorus (xix. 94), Strabo (xvi. 2. 34. Ibid. 4. 2 & 21), Josephus (Ant. i. 12, 4.), S. Jerome and some latter writers.
(2) The statement of Suidas (980 a.d.) that Dusares, an Arab idol, was worshiped there.
(3) The Arabic name of Aretes, king of Petra.
are alleged; Arindela (if the same as this Ghurundel) 18 hours from Petra (Porter, Handb. p. 58); Negla, (site unknown): Auara, a degree North, (Ptol. in Reland, 463); Elji, close to Petra. But as to:
(1) Diodorus, who calls the Nabathaeans Arabs, says that they wrote “Syriac;” Strabo calls the “Edomites” Nabathaeans, and the inhabitants of Galilee, Jericho, Philadelphia and Samaria, “a mixed race of Egyptians, Arabians, and Phoenicians” (Section 34). Also Diodorus speaks of “Nabathaean Arabia” as a distinct country (xvii. 1. 21) Josephus, and Jerome (Qu. in Gen. 25. 13) following him, include the whole country from the Euphrates to Egypt, and so some whose language was Aramaic. As to
(2) Dusares, though at first an Arab idol, was worshiped far and wide, in Galatia, Bostra, even Italy (See coins in Eckhel, Tanini, in Zoega de Obelisc. pp. 205-7, and Zoega himself, p. 205). As to:
(3) The kings named by Josephus, (see the list in Vincent’s Commerce, ii. 273-6) Arethas, Malchus, Obodas, may be equally Aramaic, and Obodas has a more Aramaic sound. Anyhow, the Nabathaeans, if placed in Petra by Nebuchadnezzar, were not conquerors, and may have received an Arab king in the four centuries between Nebuchadnezzar and the first Aretas known at Petra. What changes those settled in Samaria underwent! As to
(4) the names of places are not altered by a garrison in a capital. Our English names were not changed even by the Norman conquest; nor those of Samaria by the Assyrian. How many live on until now! Then of the four names, norm occurs until after the Christian era. There is nothing to connect them with the Nabathaeans. They may have been given before or long after them.) not of Arabic, origin. They were inhabitants of Southern Mesopotamia, and, according to the oldest evidence short of Holy Scripture, were the earliest inhabitants, before the invasion of the Chaldaeans. Their country, Irak, “extended lengthways from Mosul or Nineveh to Aba dan, and in breadth from Cadesia to Hulvan.” Syrian writers claimed that their’s was the primaeval language ; Muslim writers, who deny this, admit that their language was Syriac. A learned Syriac writer calls the three Chaldee names in Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, Nabathaean. The surviving words of their language are mostly Syriac. Muslim writers suppose them to be descended from Aram son of Shem. Once they were a powerful nation, with a highly cultivated language. One of their books, written before the destruction of Nineveh and Babylon, itself mentions an ancient literature, specifically on agriculture, medicine, botany, and, that favorite study of the Chaldaeans, astrology, “the mysteries,” star-worship and a very extensive, elaborate, system of symbolic representation. But the Chaldees conquered them; they were subjects of Nebuchadnezzar, and it is in harmony with the later policy of the Eastern Monarchies, to suppose that Nebuchadnezzar placed them in Petra, to hold in check the revolted Idumaeans. 60 geographical miles from Petra. Anyhow, 312 b.c., Edom had long been expelled from his native mountains. He was not there about 420 b.c., the age of Malachi. Probably then, after the expulsion foretold by Obadiah, he never recovered his former possessions, but continued his robber-life along the Southern borders of Judah, unchanged by God’s punishment, the same deadly enemy of Judah.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Drink. They shall rejoice at your fall, as you…
Drink. They shall rejoice at your fall, as you did at that of Juda; (St. Jerome) or, as my people has not been spared, can you expect to escape? (Jeremias xlix. 12.) --- Not. These nations and the Chaldeans themselves were brought low, while the Jews regained the regal power. The cup denotes vengeance, Psalm lxxiv. 9. Plautus uses the same expression: ut senex hoc eodem poculo, quo ego bibi, biberet. (Casina.) (Calmet)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain ye . . . upon my holy mountain--a periphrasis…
ye . . . upon my holy mountain--a periphrasis for, "ye Jews" [MAURER], whom Obadiah now by a sudden apostrophe addresses. The clause, "upon My holy mountain," expresses the reason of the vengeance to be taken on Judah's foes; namely, that Jerusalem is God's holy mountain, the seat of His temple, and Judah His covenant-people. , which is copied from Obadiah, establishes this view (compare ).
as ye have drunk, &c.--namely, the cup of wrath, being dispossessed of your goods and places as a nation, by Edom and all the heathen; so shall all the heathen (Edom included) drink the same cup (; , ; ; Jer. 25:15-33; ; ; ; ).
Read full note →
continually--whereas Judah's calamity shall be temporary (). The foes of Judah shall never regain their former position ().
swallow down--so as not to leave anything in the cup of calamity; not merely "drink" ().
be as though they had not been--not a trace left of their national existence (; ; ).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain As ye have drunk. There are two interpretations of…
As ye have drunk. There are two interpretations of this passage. By the first, the people addressed are considered to be the Jews, and the word "drunk" is taken metaphorically in both clauses. (see note on Nah_3:11) The meaning is then this As ye Jews, who are upon my holy mountain, the people of election, have not escaped from suffering the wrath of God, so all the nations shell feel the same, and that to a much more terrible extent. Confirmatory of this explanation is the language of Jeremiah, who (Jer_25:15-29) bids all the nations to drink the cup of God"s wrath, beginning at Jerusalem and passing on to Edom, and then says, in answer to any who refuse the offered draught, "Lo, I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should ye be utterly unpunished?" The same notion is found also in Jer_49:12 and Lam_4:21, etc. But there are objections to this view of the passage. The previous verse enunciated the doctrine of retribution; this verse confirms the former with the words, "for as ye," etc. It would be no proof of the lex talionis on the Edomites to cite what had happened to the Jews. What is wanted is an assertion that what they had done should be repaid to them in like coin, Besides, the prophecy is nominally addressed to the Edomites, not to the Jews, and it would he most harsh to change the subject suddenly here. "Upon my mountain" cannot be equivalent to "ye who are upon my mountain;" nor is such an expression ever used to signify "Judaeans." It is best, therefore, to take the clause as referring to the Edomites and their comrades, who, after their victory, indulged in unseemly revelry, and profaned the mountain hallowed by God"s presence in the temple with their idolatrous festival The "drinking" in this first clause is literal; in the following clause it is figurative. Septuaguint, epiev , "thou didst drink," which makes the connection of the subject here with that in ver. 15 more evident, and it has probably been altered by the translators for that purpose. So shall all the heathen drink continually. The prophet plays on the word "drink." The nations shall drink, not wine, but the wrath of God. (Psa_75:8 Jer_25:15) The nations are spoken of here because Edom is taken as a type of all nations hostile to God, and the retribution that falls on him is extended to all who assume his attitude towards God"s people (Keil). Continually; Vulgate, jugiter, perpetually, in uninterrupted succession. The LXX has oinon , by a mistaken reading. They shall swallow down; drink a full draught; Septuagint, katabhsontai , they shall go down." They shall be as though they had not been. They shall drain the wrath of God till they utterly perish, till, as nations, they exist no more. (comp. Eze_26:21 Eze_27:36) Septuagint, kaywrcontev , as if not, being" (comp. Ecc 38:11; Ecc 44:9). (For the accomplishment of this prophecy against Edom, see Introduction,
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.