Jeremiah 25:16

When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro ¹  and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” ² 

When they drink it, they will stagger and go mad because of the sword I will send among them."

"They will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them."

When they drink from it, they will stagger, crazed by the warfare I will send against them."

They'll drink it and get drunk, staggering in delirium because of the killing that I'm going to unleash among them."

And after drinking it, they will go rolling from side to side, and be off their heads, because of the sword which I will send among them.

They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.

"And they will drink and stagger and go mad because of the sword that I will send among them."

When they have drunk it, they will stagger to and fro ¹  and act insane. For I will send wars sweeping through them.” ² 

¹ tn There is some debate about the meaning of the verb here. Both BDB 172 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hithpo and KBL 191 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpol interpret this of the back and forth movement of staggering. HALOT 192 s.v. גָּעַשׁ Hitpo interprets it as vomiting. The word is used elsewhere of the up and down movement of the mountains (2 Sam 22:8) and the up and down movement of the rolling waves of the Nile (Jer 46:7, 8). The fact that a different verb is used in v. 27 for vomiting would appear to argue against it referring to vomiting (contra W. L. Holladay, Jeremiah [Hermeneia], 1:674; it is “they” that do this not their stomachs).

² tn Heb “because of the sword that I will send among them.” Here, as often elsewhere in Jeremiah, the sword is figurative for warfare which brings death. See, e.g., 15:2. The causal particle here is found in verbal locutions where it is the cause of emotional states or action. Hence there are really two “agents” which produce the effects of “staggering” and “acting insane,” the cup filled with God’s wrath and the sword. The sword is the “more literal” and the actual agent by which the first agent’s action is carried out.