Chapter Twenty-Five

1–11. The condemnation of the Judahites and their neighbors to seventy years of slavery to the Babylonians. 12–29. Judgment upon Babylon and upon the heathen nations in general. 30–38. Judgment upon the world.

Jer 25:1-11. In the fourth year of Jehoiakim’s reign, a year that coincided with the year of Nebuchadnezzar’s accession, who that year (605 B.C.) achieved a decisive victory over the Egyptian king Necho at Carchemish and thereby became the master of all western Asia and Syria with Palestine, the prophet gave a speech that contained a review of the past and a prophecy of the future. He affirmed here that his long twenty-three-year-long preaching, in which he called the Judahites to repentance, had produced no result. Therefore now the Lord entrusts His servant Nebuchadnezzar with taking Judah and the surrounding lands under his control for seventy years.

Jeremiah 25:9. Behold, I am sending for and will take all the families of the north, says the Lord, and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, My servant, and I will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all the neighboring peoples; and I will completely destroy them and make them a horror and a mockery and an eternal desolation. “The families of the north” – see Jer 1:15. – Nebuchadnezzar is called a servant of God not in the sense, for example, that David is, but simply as an instrument of divine wrath.

Jeremiah 25:10. And I will remove from them the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the sound of the millstones and the light of the lamp. In the mornings in the cities of Palestine, maidservants usually ground flour on home mills – millstones, which made a fairly loud sound when working. – Lamps, usually, constantly burned in the house where people lived.

Jeremiah 25:11. And all this land will become a desolation and a horror; and these nations will serve the king of Babylon for seventy years. The prophet precisely determines the duration of the Judahites’ subjection to the Babylonians. God has appointed seventy years for this. Evidently, the prophet counts the years from 605 B.C., when Nebuchadnezzar, through his victory over the Pharaoh Necho, who had previously ruled Palestine, became the master of Judah and the surrounding lands, even before he reached them. As the end of slavery, Jeremiah places the fall of Babylon in 539 B.C. or better, the decree of Cyrus, issued in 537 B.C. Thus in total about seventy years come out (exactly – 68). The number seventy here also has symbolic meaning, as it represents the result of multiplying 7 by 10, and both of these numbers in the language of Scripture mean fullness. – The other nations, of course, were gradually subjugated by Nebuchadnezzar, but the prophet does not consider it necessary to precisely note the time and duration of this subjugation. Jer 25:12-23. Babylon, in turn, will also drink the cup of God’s wrath after seventy years, and then this cup will be offered to other nations as well. The prophet gives a detailed enumeration of these nations; beginning with the Judahites, he then mentions the great southern power – Egypt, and then the small states bordering Judah: Uz, Philistia, Edom, then the eastern neighbors: Moab and Ammon, then the northwestern Phoenician state with its colonies, then the Arabian tribes living to the south and southeast, finally the distant nations – Elam and Media and other northern nations, to be followed in turn by Babylon. The reason for which the Lord will cause all these nations to drink from the cup of His wrath, the prophet sets forth as the fact that even the chosen people of God drink from this cup. How then can the Lord forgive the pagan nations, more guilty before the judgment of divine Righteousness!

Jeremiah 25:20. and all the mixed multitude, and all the kings of the land of Uz, and all the kings of the land of the Philistines, and Ashkelon, and Gaza, and Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod, “The mixed multitude” – these words relate to verse 19 and denote foreigners from other lands, for example, Phoenicians and Greeks, who began to settle in Egypt from the time of Psamtik, the father of Necho. – “Uz” – roughly the same as Edom (Lam 4:21), but here it is presented in a political sense as a separate region. Among the Philistine cities, Gath is not mentioned, which by that time had already lost its importance (cf. Amos 6:2; 2 Chr 26:6). As for Ashdod, only remnants remained, because Psamtik after a twenty-nine-year siege took it and destroyed it.

Jeremiah 25:22. and all the kings of Tyre, and all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the islands that are across the sea, By islands one can understand not only actual islands but also all the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenician colonies.

Jeremiah 25:23. Dedan, and Tema, and Buz, and all who cut off the hair at the temples, Cf. Isa 21:13 and following. “Buz” – see Job 32:2. “Those who cut off the hair at the temples” – see Jer 9:26.

Jeremiah 25:24. and all the kings of Arabia, and all the kings of the mixed tribes that dwell in the wilderness, By Arabia is meant here not the entire land now designated by this name, but a part of it, lying to the east and southeast adjacent to Palestine.

Jeremiah 25:25. all the kings of Zimri, and all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media, “Zimri” – this is probably the descendants of Zimran, son of Abraham by Keturah (Gen 25:2). – “Elam” – cf. Isa 21:2. A land beyond the Tigris, along its lower course. “Media” – a land lying along the upper course of the same river and also on its eastern side, with the chief cities: Ecbatana and Rages.

Jeremiah 25:26. and all the kings of the north, both near and far, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the earth which are on the face of the earth; and the king of Sheshach shall drink after them. The king of Sheshach – this is evidently the king of Babylon. It is very probable that the name “Sheshach” is a reworking of the name “Babel” (Babylon). Among ancient writers, sometimes a special alphabet was used, the so-called “atbash.” In this system the first letter of the alphabet was replaced by the last; the second by the second-to-last, and so on. Thus, instead of the word “Babel,” the prophet might have obtained the expression “Sheshach.” It is supposed that in this way the prophet covertly designated Babylon because the prophecy here concerning the destruction of Babylon could have had an encouraging effect on the Judahites, who were reluctant to submit to the Babylonians. Others say the prophet did this from a desire not to irritate the Babylonian king, who by that time was already almost the actual ruler of all Palestine. Jer 25:30-38. Retribution from God will come upon all nations, without exception. And the retribution will be complete. The slain will lie unburied on the earth from one end of it to the other. All the earth will become a desolation. Thus the judgment upon individual nations is expanded to the level of a universal, final judgment, of which it represents only a separate act.

Jeremiah 25:30. Therefore prophesy against them all these words and say to them: The Lord will roar from on high and from the habitation of His holiness will utter His voice; He will roar mightily against His fold; like those treading grapes he will shout against all the inhabitants of the earth. By “on high” it is better to understand the height of heaven, rather than the height of Moriah, which is in view, for example, in the prophet Amos (Amos 1:2) or Joel (Joel 3:16). Here God’s wrath extends to Jerusalem as well, and therefore to the height of Moriah. Special note. The fate of the pagan nations mentioned in this chapter is described in detail in Jeremiah chapters 46–51, and remarks on chapter 25 are more naturally appended to remarks on the entire section 46–51.