They whose judgment was not to drink of the cup Namely, of God's wrath: see note on Jeremiah 25:15; have assuredly drunken The Israelites, God's peculiar people, who, in regard to the gracious promises which he had made to them and to their fathers, the near relation in which they stood to him, and the many pious persons who, from age to age, were found among them, might, in all human appearance, have expected mercy at God's hands, have, nevertheless, suffered dreadful judgments. And art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? Is Edom the righteous nation, which, above all others, deserves to be exempted from punishment? There is a peculiar emphasis, says Blaney, in the pronoun הוא, he, which denotes that Edom was he, the people, to which the punishment was peculiarly due: see note on Jeremiah 25:29. I have sworn by myself I have confirmed my threatening, as I have frequently confirmed my promises, by an oath; that Bozrah shall become a desolation, &c. Bozrah, one of the chief cities of Idumea, is here put for that country in general, it being usual with the prophets to describe the destruction of a whole nation by the ruin of some one or more of its principal cities: see Jeremiah 49:23; Amos 1:8; Amos 1:12-14.
Related Commentaries of Jeremiah 49:12
Jeremiah 49:12-13
12 For thus saith the LORD; Behold, they whose judgment was not to drink of the cup have assuredly drunken; and art thou he that shall altogether go unpunished? thou shalt not go unpunished, but thou shalt surely drink of it.
13 For I have sworn by myself, saith the LORD, that Bozrah shall become a desolation, a reproach, a waste, and a curse; and all the cities thereof shall be perpetual wastes.