Jeremiah — Chapter 25
Synopsis: Jeremiah predicts 70 years of Babylonian servitude for all nations; after which Babylon itself will be destroyed. God gives Jeremiah the cup of wrath to pass to all nations; the roaring of God like a lion against the shepherds and their flocks.
Verse 11
And all this land shall be a desolation, and an astonishment: and all these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. The famous 'seventy years' of Babylonian captivity — a precise prophetic number confirmed by Zechariah 1:12 and Daniel 9:2. Lapide: the 70 years is exactly fulfilled (609-539 BC); this precision vindicates Jeremiah's prophetic vocation against the false prophets who promised immediate deliverance.
Verse 15
For thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to me: Take the cup of wine of this fury at my hand: and thou shalt make all the nations to drink it. The cup of divine wrath passed by the prophet to all nations — a prophetic gesture of universal judgment. Lapide: the cup of wrath typifies the chalice of the Eucharist (the Blood of Christ, which is simultaneously the cup of salvation and the cup of judgment to those who receive it unworthily, 1 Cor.11:29).