A cup. — The figure of the cup of Divine fury is developed, as Psalms 11:6 compared with Psalms 16:5 shows, from the more general one which represents life itself as a draught which must be drunk, bitter or sweet, according to the portion assigned. It appears again in Psalms 60:3, and is worked out in prophetic books, Isaiah 51:17; Habakkuk 2:16, Ac.; Ezekiel 23:32-34, and frequently in Jeremiah. The mode of its introduction here, after the statement that God “putteth down one and setteth up another,” shows that the poet, in speaking of a “mixture,” thinks of the good and bad commingled in the cup, which are, of course, poured out to those whose portion is to be happiness and misery in Israel; while for the heathen, the “wicked of the earth” (possibly including apostate Jews), only the dregs are left to be drained. There are, however, many obscure expressions.
Is red. — Better, foameth, from the rapid pouring out.
Mixture. — Heb., mesekh; which, like mezeg, may properly denote aromatic wine (wine mixed with spices), but here seems rather to imply the blending of the portions destined for the good and bad in Israel.
Wring. — Better, drain. (See Psalms 73:10.)
The LXX. and Vulg. seem to have had a slightly different text before them, and one which still more distinctly points to the interpretation given above: “Because in the hand of the Lord a cup of unmixed wine, full of mixture, and he turned it from this side to that, but its dregs were not emptied, all the sinners of the earth shall drink of them.” The text has “poureth from this;” the word, “to that,” may have dropped out.