“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 2. A lintel of surfeiting. That is, a door into which they shall seek to enter, to glut themselves with blood: but they shall stumble, and fall like men stupified with wine. It seems to allude to the times of Antiochus, and to the victories of the Machabees. Challoner.—Yet it indirectly relates to the last siege of Jerusalem, and to Jesus Christ establishing his Church. Hebrew “a cup of drowsiness,” or trembling. Calmet.—Septuagint “as courts (or thresholds; προθυρα) shaken.” Bible.—Jerusalem first drank the cup herself; and then under the Machabees, made others suffer.—Juda. Never before Epiphanes had the Jews fought against their brethren. Then the apostates became most terrible. 1 Maccabees 1:55 and 2:7, 19. Calmet.—Thus none persecute the Catholic faith more than those who have perfidiously abandoned it. Bible.—When the gospel began to be preached, the obstinate Jews opposed it. Acts 4. and so forth Worthington.