Jeremiah 13:12

THE PARABLE OF THE WINE JARS

"Therefore thou shalt speak unto them this word: Thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Every bottle shall be rifled with wine? and they shall say, Do we not certainly know that every bottle shall be filled with wine? Then shalt thou say unto them, Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, even the kings that sit on David's throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, with drunkenness. And I will dash them one against another, even the fathers and the sons together, saith Jehovah: I will not pity, nor spare, nor have compassion, that I should not destroy them."

The parable was brief enough: "Every bottle shall be filled with wine;" but when the prophet's critics heard him, they answered with a mocking, "Of course, everybody already knows that." What they then learned was that God was not talking of literal wine jars at all, but about the citizens of the land, all of them; and here God promised to bring drunkenness upon the total population, even including all of the upper echelons of their society, kings, priests, prophets, everyone; and Jeremiah 13:14 prophesied that the result of this alcoholic oblivion would be the total destruction of the nation.

In this parable, "The bottles represent all the people, and the wine represents the wrath of God."[6] The intoxication of all the people, rendering them helpless against all their enemies, indicated the certainty of God's impending punishment for the people's headstrong continuation in their licentious idolatry.