“‘You have gone
The way
Of your sister.
Therefore,
I will give her cup
Into your hand.’
Thus says Yahweh God!
‘You shall drink
Your sister’s cup!
It is deep!
It is wide!
You shall be scorned!
You shall be derided!
It holds so much!
You will be filled
With drunkenness!
You will be filled
With sorrow!
It is a cup of horror!
It is a cup of desolation!
It is the cup
Of your sister
Samaria!
You shall drink it!
You shall drain it out!
You shall gnaw its sherds!
You shall
Tear out your breasts!
I have spoken.’
Says Yahweh God.”
This seems to be a poem or oracle about a cup of wrath. Jerusalem has gone the way of her sister Samaria. Thus she will be given her sister’s cup, the Samarian cup. Yahweh, via Ezekiel, said that Jerusalem would drink her sister’s deep and wide cup. Thus she was going to be scorned and derided. Jerusalem would drink from this large cup. She would be filled with drunkenness and sorrow because this was a cup of horror and desolation. Jerusalem was to drain this big cup by drinking from it. She would then gnaw and eat the glass pottery sherd pieces of this cup. Finally, she would tear out her breasts. This is what Yahweh, God, had spoken. This did not sound like a good experience.
Eugene Finnegan Bible Project 