This word is taken in a twofold sense; proper, and figurative. In a
proper sense, it signifies a vessel, such as people drink out of at
meals, Gen. xl, 13. It was anciently the custom, at great
entertainments, for the governor of the feast to appoint to each of his
guests the kind and proportion of wine which they were to drink, and
what he had thus appointed them it was deemed a breach of good manners
either to refuse or not to drink up; hence a man’s cup, both in sacred
and profane authors, came to signify the portion, whether of good or
evil, which happens to him in this world. Thus, to drink “the cup of
trembling,” or of “the fury of the Lord,” is to be afflicted with sore
and terrible judgments, Isaiah li, 17; Jeremiah xxv, 15–29; Psalm lxxv,
8. What Christ means by the expression, we cannot be at a loss to
understand, since in two remarkable passages, Luke xxii, 42, and John
xviii, 11, he has been his own interpreter. _Lethale poculum bibere_,
“to drink the deadly cup,” or cup of death, was a common phrase among
the Jews; and from them, we have reason to believe, our Lord borrowed
it.
proper sense, it signifies a vessel, such as people drink out of at
meals, Gen. xl, 13. It was anciently the custom, at great
entertainments, for the governor of the feast to appoint to each of his
guests the kind and proportion of wine which they were to drink, and
what he had thus appointed them it was deemed a breach of good manners
either to refuse or not to drink up; hence a man’s cup, both in sacred
and profane authors, came to signify the portion, whether of good or
evil, which happens to him in this world. Thus, to drink “the cup of
trembling,” or of “the fury of the Lord,” is to be afflicted with sore
and terrible judgments, Isaiah li, 17; Jeremiah xxv, 15–29; Psalm lxxv,
8. What Christ means by the expression, we cannot be at a loss to
understand, since in two remarkable passages, Luke xxii, 42, and John
xviii, 11, he has been his own interpreter. _Lethale poculum bibere_,
“to drink the deadly cup,” or cup of death, was a common phrase among
the Jews; and from them, we have reason to believe, our Lord borrowed
it.