Babylon was a golden cup in the LORD’s hand: In 25.15-16 Jeremiah was commanded to make all the nations drink from the cup of the LORD’s anger. Now the nation of Babylonia is spoken of as a golden cup used by the LORD to make the whole world drunk. Good News Translation transforms the metaphor into a simile: “Babylonia was like a gold cup….”

Making all the earth drunken can be “the whole world drank from it and became drunk.” The text does not say what was in the cup that the whole world drank from to become drunk, unless it was the LORD’s anger, as in chapter 25. Only Contemporary English Version states this, however, with the cup “filled with the wine of my anger.” But because this is called a golden cup, the meaning could also be that the nations were intoxicated by the splendor of Babylon in which they shared, as in “All the earth shared in its greatness.”

The nations is omitted from the Septuagint (at its second occurrence in the verse). However, whether we choose to repeat “the nations” or to use the pronoun “they” is purely a translational matter, depending on the discourse requirements of the given language.

Went mad: Compare 25.16, where the same verb is rendered “be crazed” by Revised Standard Version.

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .