And they must drink and shake back and forth and act like crazed men because of the sword that I am sending among them.’

13. What was the “sword” that Jehovah was to send among all the nations?

¹³ What was the “sword” that Jehovah was to send among all the nations that are listed in Jeremiah 25:18-26? It was the war of conquest that he permitted his “servant,” Nebuchadnezzar, to wage against all those nations.

14. At what did the “sword” strike first, and what kings did this affect, and how?

¹⁴ The symbolic “sword” struck first at Jehovah’s typical kingdom in the land of Judah. (Jer. 25:29) The “kings” of Jerusalem who felt the “sword” strokes were (1) Jehoiakim the son of Josiah; (2) Jehoiachin (Jeconiah) the son of Jehoiakim; and (3) Zedekiah the son of Josiah and uncle of Jehoiachin. The first stroke, inflicted upon King Jehoiakim in 620 B.C.E., four years after Jeremiah’s prophecy about the “sword” and the “cup,” made him a sworn vassal king under Nebuchadnezzar. The second sword stroke was inflicted in 617 B.C.E. and removed young Jehoiachin from his kingship over Jerusalem and put him in exile in Babylon. The third and final stroke destroyed Jerusalem and its temple in 607 B.C.E. and deported the oath-breaking King Zedekiah to Babylon to die there as a sightless, sonless prisoner.