For in the hand of the LORD [there is] a cup, and the wine is red; it is full of mixture; and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof, all the wicked of the earth shall wring [them] out, [and] drink [them].
Ver. 8. For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup] A cup of affliction, whereof all must drink, more or less. The Chaldee calleth it a cup of curse. Affliction is in itself a fruit of sin and a piece of the curse.
And the wine is red] And so more powerful and piercing, Proverbs 23:31,32. That is an affliction, and grievous, that God maketh to be so.
It is full of mixture] i.e. Ready prepared, as Pro 9:1-18 : 2 Kings 14:10, or mingled with spices, to make the wine more hot and inebriating, Vinum aromaticum.
And he poureth out of the same] The saints sip of the top only, they drink illud solum quod est suavius et limpidius, the sweeter and clearer part of God's cup. Excellently Mr Bradford, martyr, in a certain letter of his, Drink, saith he, of God's cup willingly, and at the first, when it is fullest; peradventure if we linger, we drink at length of the dregs with the wicked, if at the beginning we drink not with God's children (Acts and Mon. fol. 1487).
But the dregs thereof] The full vials of Divine vengeance.
All the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them] They shall drink them every drop, yea, though it be eternity to the bottom. This shall be worse to them than was that ladlefull of scalding lead poured down the throat of a drunken man, by the command of a Turkish bashaw.