This duty imposed by the Lord Jeremiah performs; he takes the cup and makes all peoples drink it. Here the question has been suggested, how Jeremiah performed this commission: whether he made journeys to the various kings and peoples, or, as J. D. Mich. thought, gave the cup to ambassadors, who were perhaps then in Jerusalem. This question is the result of an imperfect understanding of the case. The prophet does not receive from god a flagon filled with wine which he is to give, as a symbol of divine wrath, to the kings and peoples; he receives a cup filled with the wrath of God, which is to intoxicate those that drink of it. As the wrath of God is no essence that may be drunk by the bodily act, so manifestly the cup is no material cup, and the drinking of it no act of the outer, physical reality. The whole action is accordingly only emblematical of a real work of God wrought on kings and peoples, and is performed by Jeremiah when he announces what he is commanded. And the announcement he accomplished not by travelling to each of the nations named, but by declaring to the king and his princes in Jerusalem the divine decree of judgment.

The enumeration begins with Judah, Jeremiah 25:18, on which first judgment is to come. Along with it are named Jerusalem, the capital, and the other cities, and then the kings and princes; whereas in what follows, for the most part only the kings, or, alternating with them, the peoples, are mentioned, to show that kings and peoples alike must fall before the coming judgment. The plural "kings of Judah" is used as in Jeremiah 19:3. The consequence of the judgment: to make them a desolation, etc., runs as in Jeremiah 25:9, Jeremiah 25:11, Jeremiah 19:8; Jeremiah 24:9. כּיּום הזּה has here the force: as is now about to happen.

Jeremiah 25:23 Parallel Commentaries

Dedan.

Jeremiah 49:8 Flee you, turn back, dwell deep, O inhabitants of Dedan; for I will bring the calamity of Esau on him, the time that I will visit him.

Genesis 10:7 And the sons of Cush; Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtechah: and the sons of Raamah; Sheba, and Dedan.

Genesis 22:21 Huz his firstborn, and Buz his brother, and Kemuel the father of Aram,

Genesis 25:15 Hadar, and Tema, Jetur, Naphish, and Kedemah:

1 Chronicles 1:30 Mishma, and Dumah, Massa, Hadad, and Tema,

Job 6:19 The troops of Tema looked, the companies of Sheba waited for them.

Isaiah 21:13,14 The burden on Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall you lodge, O you traveling companies of Dedanim...

Ezekiel 25:13 Therefore thus said the Lord GOD; I will also stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it...

Ezekiel 27:20 Dedan was your merchant in precious clothes for chariots.

in the utmost corners. Heb. cut off into corners, or having the corners of the hair polled.

Jeremiah 9:1 Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears...

Jeremiah 26:1 In the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah came this word from the LORD, saying,

Jeremiah 49:32 And their camels shall be a booty, and the multitude of their cattle a spoil...