John Calvin Commentary Jeremiah 25:16

"And they shall drink, and reel to and fro, and be mad, because of the sword that I will send among them." — Jeremiah 25:16 (ASV)

Here the Prophet more fully shows what we have previously stated: that they were not empty threats when he announced God’s judgments on all nations, for we call those threatenings childish which are not fulfilled. But the Prophet here declares that however obstinately the Jews and others might resist, they could not possibly escape God’s vengeance, as He was the judge of all.

Hence, the Prophet is commanded to take a cup and to give it to others. But the Jews might have still objected, saying, “We may indeed take the cup from your hand, but what if we refuse? What if we cast away from us what you give us to drink?” Therefore, the Prophet says that, willing or unwilling, they were to take the cup, so that they might drink and exhaust whatever was destined for them by God’s judgment. He therefore says, that they may drink.

He then adds, that they may be incensed and become distracted. These two words refer, no doubt, to the severity of their punishment, for he implies that they would become, as it were, destitute of mind and reason. When God kindly chastises us, and with paternal moderation, we are then able to submit to Him with resignation and to flee to His mercy. But when we cry out and are driven almost to madness, we then show that an extreme rigor is felt, and that there is no hope of pardon.

The Prophet, then, intended to express that the calamities of the nations with whom God was angry would be so atrocious that they would become stupefied and almost insane, and at the same time frantic. For despair would seize their minds and hearts, so that they would not be able to entertain any hope of deliverance or to submit to God; instead, as is usual with the reprobate, they would rise up against God and vomit forth their blasphemies.

He says, because of the sword that I will send among them. It appears from the word בינתם, bintem, “among them,” that there would be mutual conflicts, that they would destroy one another. God, then, would send His sword; but He would extend it now to the Chaldeans, then to the Egyptians, now to the Assyrians, then to other nations, so that with the same sword they would contend with one another, until at last it would bring about their ruin.